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KANSAS CITY, MO. PUBLIC LIBRARY
DOD1 D3b?mfl 3
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
HOPE
FOR SOUTH AFRICA
ALAN PATON
FREDERICK A. PRAEGER
Publishers
NEW YOKE, N.Y.
BOOKS THAT MATTER
Published in the United States of America
in 1959 by
Frederick A. Praeger, Inc., Publishers
15 West 47th Street, New York 36, N.Y.
All rights reserved
Likary of Congress Catalog Card Number: 59-772?
Printed in Great Britain in 1959 by
Taylor Gamett Evans & Co, Ltd.,
Watford md London
CONTENTS
Page
Prefatory Notes vii
Chapter i Introductory I
n The Meaning of 'Liberal' in South Africa 6
in The coining of the Dutch 10
iv The coming of the British 21
v 'The Century of Wrong 5 30
vi The Rise of the Afrikaner 36
vn No Easy Future 52
vm Parliamentary and Extra-Parliamentary
Functions 60
ix The Role of the Liberal Party 72
x Conclusion 85
Important Background Information 89
Index 91
PREFATORY NOTES
1. I have, wherever possible, spelt 'liberalism' and 'liberal*
without the use of a capital letter. Occasionally, however,
I have used the capital letter, and the words then refer to the
more precisely formulated beliefs of the Liberal Party, and
to one who espouses them. I hope this causes no confusion.
2. The word 'African* is used in this essay to denote the
descendants of the original native black population. The
word 'native* is used only when it is unavoidable, as in
'native reserves 9 , 'Native Affairs Department 9 , Le. official
terminology.
The word 'Bantu' is also, used where it seems necessary,
but I might inform my readers that Africans, while not
objecting to the word 'Bantu', used of a language group,
object to its use to describe the Afiican people. The problem
is not easy to solve, for while 'African 5 is the obvious
analogue of 'European*, it will not do when one is speaking
of 'Afrikaners' and 'EngBsh-speaMog' South Africans. What
is one to do then? It is extremely cumbrous to enumerate
all the South Afiican tribes, such as Zulu, Sotho, Xosa, etc.
etc.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY
THE political power in South Africa is almost entirely
in the hands of the white people. The exceptions are
that Africans are represented in the Senate by four
Europeans, and in the Lower House by three Europeans,
all of whom they elect; the Coloured people are represented
by four Europeans, also elected by them. At one time
Africans and Coloured people who were qualified to
vote in the Cape Province were on the common roll, and
voted like everyone else, except that the elected legislators
had to be white; but General Hertzog and his United Party,
aided by Dr. Malan's Nationalist Party, were able in 1936 to
secure the two-thirds majority needed to remove African
voters to a separate roll, and in 1956 Mr. Strijdom and his
Nationalist Party manufactured a two-thirds majority by
means of enlarging the Senate and removed Coloured
voters to a separate roll
Therefore today the white population of South Africa and
South-West Africa is represented by 156 Members of
Parliament, and the non-white population by seven
members while in the Senate the numbers are eighty-five
and four respectively.
The Indian people are entirely unrepresented. In 1946
General Smuts and his United Party offered the Indian people
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
a token representation similar to that accorded to African
and Coloured people, as a compensation for restrictions on
Indian land and property ownership and purchase, but
before the Indians could use this representation and it is
doubtful whether they would have^-it was withdrawn by
Dr. Malan and his Nationalist Party when they came into
power in 1948. The Nationalists have always regarded
the Indian population as alien and unassimilable, and intend
to segregate them strictly, with the hope that this will induce
them to 'return* to India. The overwhelming majority of
Indians were bom in South Africa, to which country the
forebears of most of them were brought by the joint efforts
of the sugar planters and the Government of Natal, in the
latter half of last century.
Also unrepresented are Coloured women, who were never
admitted to the Cape franchise, and all the Coloured people,
both men and women, of the Transvaal and the Orange
Free State.
That briefly is the present position. Of 252 legislators,
eleven represent African and Coloured voters, but these
eleven must also be white. Even these eleven representatives
are not secure; the Government, in pursuance of its policy
of establishing local authorities in the Native Reserves,
will probably abolish the seven Native Representatives
altogether, and the desire to do so has already been expressed
in high quarters.
One could be allowed to wonder if even the four
Coloured Representatives would be safe. If apartheid for
Coloured people makes any progress, they may one day
have their own local authorities; they already have their own
Coloured Affairs Department. Furthermore, many white
South Africans find it intolerable to think that four
Coloured Representatives might hold the balance of power
INTRODUCTORY
in the Lower House. It must therefore be considered
possible that one day the South African ParEament will
consist only of white legislators who represent only white
people. That is the trend, if not the goal, of contemporary
politics.
However, a great number of white South Africans realize
that this is an unstable position. The two major parties offer
to stabilize It in different ways. Let us consider briefly their
policies.
At least two policies are adopted by Afrikaner National
ists. The Nationalists proceed on the assumption that it is
totally and forever unthinkable that white and non-white
people should live on equal terms within the same society;
they therefore waver between two policies. The first is
called Separate Development, Le. granting equality by
means of total territorial separation; this policy commends
itself to ideaHsts and intellectuals. The second is called
baasskap y and means plainly White Supremacy; Its supporters
regard total territorial separation as impossible, and consider
that * white civilization* will survive only if one Is prepared
to fight for It. At the same time, a krge number of
Nationalists are able to justify the repressive laws obaasskap,
because they regard them as steps towards total separation,
which some authorities suppose to be a goal that may not
be reached for a hundred or more years. Many Nationalists
are thus able to live in two worlds, swallowing injustice
in the one that is here, so that there may be justice in the
other that Is yet to come. It is what Professor B. B. Keet
calls the 'pipe-dream*; and It has one striking characteristic,
in that the more Impossible the realization, the more
insistently the dream Is called up.
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
The second great party is the United Party, which on
April 16, 1958, secured half of the votes of the country, and
only one third of the seats. This Party represents the great
majority of the English-speaking people and a hard but
dwindling core of Afrikaners who inherit the old Botha-
Smuts tradition of co-operation and reconciliation. .This
Party may also be said to have two ultimately irreconcilable
policies, which are, however, combined in one, under the
fine-sounding tide, Discrimination with Justice. It is a city
party, a more sophisticated party, and it believes in ad hoc
decisions; it believes in a 'realistic' acceptance of present
inevitabilities, and a 'progressive' adaptation to new events.
Its leaders are therefore able to promise imaginative leader
ship to the continent of Africa, while having no political
or social links with Africans at home. The Party is crippled
by the necessity to conceal its ad hoc nature from those who
want racial blueprints, and by the necessity to appear
liberal in the eyes of the world and conservative in the eyes
of the rural voter.
A small party which disappeared at the 1958 election was
the Labour Party. Its two courageous and progressive
M.P.s, Mr. Alex Hepple in Rosettenville and Mr. Leo
Lovell in Benoni, having decided not to join the United
Party, were crushed by it. The votes polled (Hepple 974,
Lovell 1696) reveal two important truths; first, the United
Party voter is not a supporter of progressive ideas; second,
the number of progressive white voters is small. Compare
the Hepple and Lovell totals with Brown (Liberal, Pieter-
maritzburg District, 604), Dey (Liberal, Orange Grove, 688),
Gordon (Liberal, Sea Point, 1,642), in constituencies with
approximately 11,000 voters. But another fact must be
remembered; this was the first time since Union (1910) that
liberal and progressive ideas had ever been put before the
INTRODUCTORY
electorate. Meanwhile the Labour Party has disappeared.
This was inevitable; it was an all-white party, and labour is
nearly all black.
While the Labour Party has disappeared, the Liberal
Party has just appeared. Today it is the party least affected
by the sweeping election success of the Nationalists. It did
not expect any improvement in the situation. It regards
Nationalism and Liberalism as the real issue before the
white voter. It did not expect any notable support from the
electorate, because it stands for a common society with
opportunity open to all, a goal unacceptable at present to
most white South Africans, who have one great fear, namely
that the white man will be swamped or even ejected.
Will the goal ever be acceptable? Is white South Africa
preparing itself to enter the Nationalist fortress, where the
struggle will be fought out, and to the death? Is there any
hope for Liberalism, for a common society open to all,
guaranteeing individual liberty and the rule of kw, or will
we exchange the rule of white nationalism for the rule of
bkck nationalism? Even if that did happen, would it not
still be necessary to champion liberal beliefs? Will bkck
nationalism be animated by a desire for revenge? Or will
black nationalism, because it has no fear of being 'swamped*,
be juster to white people than white nationalism was to
bkck people? finally, is 'change of heart' a quite non-
political concept, with no political relevance; because we
must face the fact that the liberal Party of South Africa
works for a ^change of heart', on both moral and practical
grounds.
These are the questions that this little book will attempt
to examine.
CHAPTER II
THE MEANING OF 'LIBERAL' IN
SOUTH AFRICA
IT would first be wise to indicate the special meaning
attaching to the words 'liberal' and 'liberalism' in
South Africa. Liberalism in South Africa, though it
has common elements with liberalism in other countries,
and though its roots are the roots of liberalism everywhere,
has nevertheless one characteristic which is especially its
own, and that is its particular concern with racial justice. It
is liberal in South Africa to want educated Africans to have
a parliamentary vote; it is more liberal to want them to be
able to stand for Parliament; it is even more liberal to want
all Africans to participate fully in the processes of govern
ment.
It is liberal to want Indian traders to be allowed to trade
in the central portion of a town or city and it is liberal to
concern oneself with any injustice done to a non-white
person. In the first half of last century it was liberal to want
to protect slaves and servants from the punishments of harsh
masters.
So the word 'liberal* in South Africa has come to have its
own special meaning. It is possible to use it in other ways,
including ways more readily understood in other countries,
but in South Africa such a departure would need a word
of explanation.
THE MEANING OF LIBERAL' IN SOUTH AFRICA
The word 'liberal' used by a liberal himself has, of course,
a complimentary meaning. It may mean nothing more than
that one is a white person who is in favour of the lifting of
restrictions on non-white people, who is not bound hand
and foot by racial custom and tradition and who is prepared
to concede, not only a just ideal, but an increasing measure
of just practice. In general, white members of the Liberal
Party are more prepared for change than liberals outside it;
in general they uphold equality of opportunity and of status
as between white and non-wMte people, though some would
insist on a transitional period towards such equality and
others would proclaim it tomorrow if they could.
But there are other liberals who are not white persons.
They are therefore upholding more than the right of non-
white people to equality with white people. They are
upholding the rights of all people and are defending what
have been recognized as man's fundamental freedoms, as
against kw or police or Parliament or State. Their presence
in a Liberal organization is of inestimable value, because
their liberalism springs from a different experience of life
and therefore enriches the whole. Liberalism, therefore, as
seen from either of these points of view, is the champion of
individual man; it is on the alert to defend him from any
encroachment on his freedom and his rights, it is desirous
of creating a society in which life may be said to be human.
Further, the word 'liberal* has for the white enemies of
South African Liberalism another meaning; it shares this
further meaning with the words Tiberalist* and liberalistic*,
This meaning is derogatory and carries the stigma of loose*,
'careless', 'promiscuous 5 . A liberalise. 9 may for some be
merely a person who espouses a wrong-headed philosophy,
but for others he will be a person who has lost his 'own-
ness*, who in being all things to all men has himself become
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
nothing, who has lost kind and class and Identity, who has
sunk himself in a quicksand of shiftingness, who has no
longer any pride in being the special man that God intended
him to be, or in possessing the special language or in having
the special culture that God intended Tiim to have, and, what
is more, to preserve, maintain and die for.
Therefore in South Africa white religious men and
women can easily bring themselves to hate and despise
liberalism, and to see it not as the espousal of racial justice,
but rather as the philosophy of decadence, of people who,
instead of protecting their c ownness' as God intended, have
chosen the easy way of indiscriminate mixing. It is therefore
to be expected that many white enemies of liberalism should
accuse liberals of careless lives, of sexual promiscuity, or of
a tendency towards it, and in particular a sexual disregard
for race and colour. It is also to be expected that these
accusations against liberals are in the main hurled at them
by the poorest and least educated of their white opponents.*
This 'carelessness* of liberals is supposed also to apply to
matters of religion. Because a person is liberal' in religious
matters, because he may know and like persons of other
religions or of no religion, he is assumed to be atheist or
agnostic or wholly indifferent; but if he is clearly religious,
then he has clearly become obsessed by the love' of God, and
has overlooked His majesty, His laws, His ordered creation,
His decree of *own-sort-ness'.
Further, in the sphere of religion, the liberal, because of
his being all things to all men, has deserted dogma and
fixedness and has become vaguely benevolent, and possibly
finally a 'mere' humanist. It was for this reason that the
**When white students of Natal University picketed a Nationalist Party meeting
and displayed placards-protesting against University Apartheid, they were angrily
shouted at, and exhorted in this public place to *go and sleep with your kaffir
girls*. Others of us have had similar experiences.
8
THE MEANING OF LIBERAL IN SOUTH AFRICA
Dutch Reformed Church of South Africa, seeking ministers
for the new congregations formed by the Great Trek, turned
from Holland in dismay and finally chose their men from
the Free Church of Scotland.
The word 'liberal* has a further meaning which is given to
it by its more radical enemies, and in general this unfavour
able meaning is attached to white liberals, others being
regarded as fools and dupes. To be 'liberal' is to these critics
to be weak and spineless and compromising, or to be
unwilling to make any real sacrifice for these noble ideals,
or to be unwilling to face the hard and bitter future of hard
and bitter conflict (and therefore to be unprepared for it),
or to be hypocrites who are concerned not with justice but
only with their own skins, or to be knowingly or un
knowingly trying to blunt the edge of bkck resistance by
drawing off fighters into the pavilions of love.
This essay will attempt to make clear to the reader the
historical reasons for the particular meanings that the
word 'liberal* and its derivatives have acquired in South
Africa. It will attempt to give a brief history of South Africa,
without which it seems impossible to understand the
contemporary scene. It will attempt from a liberal point of
view to examine the present, and even to peer into the future.
It will examine the position, the function, the achievement,
the future of liberalism of the South African kind, and the
considerable challenges that confront it. While not neglect
ing the contributions of unattached or non-political liberals,
and while endeavouring to present their view-point clearly,
the whole essay will be written from the standpoint of one
who is identified with the Liberal Party, and who thinks
that the Party best represents the liberal cause.
CHAPTER III
THE COMING OF THE DUTCH
BRIEF history of South Africa, especially when written
by one who is not an historian, may be subject to
much criticism. There is, however, no other course
to be taken. We cannot dispense with a history, and it must
be brief.
I suppose it is true of all countries that it is impossible to
grasp fully their politics unless one knows their histories.
It is I think more true of South Africa than of most; for
otherwise it is difficult to understand the cold but never
dangerous relationship between English- and Afrikaans-
speaking South Africans, or to understand the strange
compound of fear, disgust, duty, justice and charity that
is the attitude of the white South African to the non-white,
and the deep distrust that characterizes the non-white
attitude towards the whites.
Nevertheless I shall at the outset apologize for my brief
historical account, which has necessarily sacrificed detail for
clarity. But at the same time I shall defend it, for I find it
reasonably satisfactory under all the circumstances.
Herodotus, famed historian of antiquity, relates how
Necho of Egypt, six hundred years before Christ, sent
10
THE COMING OF THE DUTCH
explorers down the east coast of Africa, with instructions to
tircmnnavigate the continent and to return by way of the
Mediterranean. This they did, returning to Egypt after an
absence of three years. We suppose that these mariners
saw Table Mountain from the sea, and that they were the
first men to do so.
It was 2000 years later, in A.D. 1486, that the Cape was
'discovered*. In that year Bartholomew Diaz, sailing for
King John of Portugal, got as far as Algoa Bay (Port
Elizabeth), and apparently on his return voyage saw the
Cape, which, according to some, he called the Cape of
Storms; but King John, believing that the route to India
was within grasp, renamed it the Cape of Good Hope. He
was justified, because in 1497 Vasco da Gama passed beyond
the Cape, named Natal, visited Mozambique and reached
India.
In 1503 Antonio de Saldanha actually entered Table Bay,
and for all we know his was the first ship ever to lie under
the great mountain. He was almost certainly the first white
man to climb it, and it was he who gave it the name of
Table Mountain.
In 1580 Sir Francis Drake rounded the Cape, and called it
'the fairest Cape in the whole circumference of the earth*.
In 1620 Captains Shilling and Fitzherbert annexed the Cape
for King James, but the King refused to endorse their
action.
Meanwhile the power of Portugal had declined, and in
1602 the great Dutch ^stLadia Comgaoy was established to
trade with India and die Orient. So it happened that in 1652
the Company found it necessary to establish a refreshment
station at the Cape, where green vegetables could be grown
as a means of fighting the dreadful plague of scurvy, where
the sick could be left for attention and where outgoing sailor s
ii
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
could leave letters to be taken back to Holland by the next
home-going ship.
The indigenous inhabitants of the Cape were not numer
ous. They were the Hottentots and the Bushmen, The
Hottentots were a primitive pastoral people; some of them
were drawn into the life of the new settlement, either as
servants or as suppliers of cattle to the passing ships, while
some of them retreated from these powerful intruders,
north and north-east into the interior. The Bushmen were
an even more primitive people; they were diminutive in
stature, they were notable hunters with poisoned arrows and
they have left behind fascinating rock paintings in caves.
When they could not get meat, they lived on wild fruits,
insects and roots. To them the cattle of other men were
only another kind of game, and as they had raided the
Hottentots in the past, now they raided the white man's
herds and other possessions. The white man's civilization
was so alien to them that they made no attempt whatever
to come to terms with it, and so, harried and killed in
consequence of their raids, they withdrew farther and
farther into the caves of the mountains. As the white man
advanced, they retreated still further, into the deserts; today
few of them are left and they live in the Kalahari, where
they are protected by the British Government in much the
same way as animals are protected in the Kruger Park.
It was not the original intention of the Dutch East India
Company that the new settlement should become a colony.
Nevertheless it did not find company farming very $uccess-
ful, and in 1657 it allowed nine burghers to go farming on
their own at Rondebosch, but placed them under many
irksome restrictions. In fact the burghers grew more and
more impatient of the rule of the Company and began to
look upon it as an alien authority, with interests different
12
THE COMING OF THE DUTCH
from, and in some cases incompatible with, their own. As
the burghers moved further and further from Cape Town,
this Incompatibility grew more marked, and it became a
recurrent factor in subsequent history.
The Company offered such low prices for farm produce
that in 1658, in an attempt to lower the costs of production,
the first Negro slaves were imported from West Africa.
Thereafter slaves were imported from Malaya also. In the
Cape, slavery took a relatively mild form, and there do not
survive in South Africa the terrible stories known in so many
other countries. It was with these slaves that those Hottentots
whd stayed in the Cape gradually merged, thus producing,
with the co-operation of white settlers and sailors, a separate
people called the Cape Coloured people, who today
number one and a third millions and speak the same language
as the Afrikaner people. In the early beginnings, this
separation of the Coloured from the white was anything
but hard and fast; van Riebeeck promoted van Meerhof to
the rank of surgeon just after he had married Eva, a Hotten
tot woman. But customs changed; as society became more
settled, such marriages became less and less acceptable, and
the white and coloured groups grew more and more
separate. It is hardly necessary to say that as this colour*
division grew more and more discriminatory, many
families who were in fact of mixed blood stoutly dung to
their membership of the white group; it was also quite
common for a light-skinned coloured person to 'pass 9 , often
with the help of his or her relatives.
The white people of the Cape grew slowly in numbers,
and were strengthened by accessions of German and French
immigrants, these latter the celebrated Huguenots, who
brought new skill to a very raw wine industry/ Many of
them were settled on farms twenty, thirty miles from Cape
13
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
Town. The most adventurous settlers, however, became
pastoralists rather than agriculturists, and moved further and
further away, until finally they reached the wastes of the
Karroo. They were, as we know, already impatient of the
rule of the Company, and they lived in greater and greater
isolation from the influences of Europe. Their Dutch
language changed too, becoming much simplified, and
adding to itself a host of new idioms influenced by the
kind of country they lived in and the kind of life they led,
by the ox, by the wagon, by the loneliness, by the dry
watercourse and the thorn. This country and this life were
as unlike Holland and its ways as any country and life
could be, and the language had to find new words for
new things and new experiences, and to give new meanings
to old words. The language was at first .simply called die taal
or 'the language', but today it is called 4ifcaam."The people
were called at first the Afrikanders, today simply the
Afrikaners, people of Africa. No word could show more
clearly the way in which Europe had ceased to count for
these pioneers.
No visitor to South Africa should fail to see the Karroo
if he wishes to understand an important chapter in the
genesis of the Afrikaner people. It is a hard country,
encouraging what are sometimes called the masculine
qualities, of courage, tenacity, inflexibility, discouraging
the feminine qualities of gentleness, kindliness and compas
sion, so that even the traditional Afrikaner mother is first
and foremost the fierce protectress of the nation and its
honour.
The expansion over the Karroo was rapid. Smallpox had
almost annihilated the Hottentots, and there was little to
stop the advance of the trekker, or the trekloer, a,s he was
called, or even more simply, the boer. The word j^r means
'JLHJB COMING OF THE DUTCH
farmer, and tie word trekboer means a farmer who treks
about, looking for grazing. The Company tried to control
this migration, but was not successful; and this hard, free
life made the trekkers independent and impatient of control
There was noticeable, even at this early time, a cleavage
between the trekkers and the city people of Cape Town,
the first a people of Africa, the second still largely a people
of Europe. This cleavage was rendered more pronounced by
the Great Trek of 1836, so that up till today we speak of a
difference between the Afrikaner traditions of the Cape and
the Transvaal. By this we mean, amongst other things, that
the Transvaal attitude towards racial questions is harder and
more uncompromising, two characteristic features, as we
have noted, of the scenery of the Karroo. We may also note
that the healing of this Afrikaner cleavage was due in krge
measure to the later acts of men like Rhodes and Milner;
of all the creators of Afrikaner unity, these two were the
greatest.
These conditions of isolation and wildness might well
have led to degeneration, and did in some cases; but
religion exercised a powerful influence over the people.
Although the Church, like the Company, found it difficult
to keep in touch with the trekkers, the Bible was their
constant companion, and daily scripture reading with
prayers was a feature of family life. In particular were the
trekkers attracted by the stories of the patriarchs, which
seemed most relevant to their hard and lonely life. And who
could have been nearer to the patriarchs than they them
selves, as they moved in the wilderness with their flocks and
herds, with their menservants and their maidservants,
amongst wild men and wild beasts, with no protection but
their rifles and their God? One might be forgiven for sup
posing that the Old Testament seemed far more relevant
15
HOPE FOJ* SOUTH AFRICA
than the New to their frontier life, and that the God of
Israel was more comprehensible than the Lover of all
mankind.
As for the land itself, with its space and freedom, with its
oases of greenness and coolness amid the heat and rock and
thorn, to it they gave a fierce and possessive love. How far
indeed were they from Europe, and how far in this Karroo
from the thousand waterways of Holland! This horse, this
saddle, this rifle, this antelope running, this everlasting
plain, this everlasting sun this was life, yet you would
find not one hint of it in all the picture galleries of Amster
dam.
About 1770 there were over 10,000 white people at the
Cape, and about an equal number of skves. Nine-tenths of
these white people were burghers and about half of them
lived in Cape Town and in the beautiful valleys beyond
the Cape Flats. The other half were the trekboers of whom
we have already spoken. Before their advance the Bushmen
and the Hottentots had wasted away ; but now they began to
encounter a new contestant, the Bantu tribes slowly moving
south, largely in the country below the great escarpment that
shut off the interior of the subcontinent. This encounter was
one of the supreme events in the history of the Afrikaner.
In 1778 Governor van Plettenberg, after consulting some
petty Xosa chieftains, tried to circumvent it by declaring
the Hsh River to be the boundary of northward expansion.
But this arrangement, like every similar arrangement made
subsequently, failed, partly because there was no black
centralized government with which to deal, partly because
both Boer and Xosa were cattle-owners, and were hungry
for land. The Xosas, though without written language and
technological skill, were fierce warriors of assegai and shield,
with a rich language and a notable system of law and
16
THE COMING OF THE DUTCH
custom. It is believed that they arrived in what is today known
as the Eastern Cape Province in the late 1500'$, and that
they would have reached the Cape of Good Hope in due
course, had they not now encountered the Boers.
Van Plettenberg's frontier remained unfortifiedandresdess;
remote control was now quite beyond the powers of a
failing Company and a declining Netherlands. Individuals
crossed the Fish River, either to steal cattle or retrieve them,
to barter or to work or to hunt. One person's act could
easily involve all. There was incessant trouble, raiding,
thefts, reprisals. Sometimes it happened that a fanner
would return home from a journey to find that his whole
family had been killed, his home burned and his animals
stolen. Grim pictures of these events are still to be found on
the walls of some Afrikaner homes, keeping alive memories
of the days when white and black were bitter and pitiless
enemies. The situation had got out of hand; the Boers drove
Lmdlwst (Magistrate) Maynier out of his drostdy, because
he was too much of a stickler for die rule of kw. In 1795
the Boers of Graaff Reinet set up their own republic,
followed four days kter by the Boers of Swellendam. The
whole border was in a state of chaos, and less and less did
the trekboers look for salvation anywhere but in themselves.
So it was that the struggle to survive on a dangerous
continent became the main thought of the trekboer's mind,
the main purpose of the trekboer's life. Like the thorn tree s
which was to pky a large part as a poetic symbol in Ms
literature a century kter, he put his roots down into the rock
and stone, and in the face of all calamity survived. His
enmity with the black man was bitter and relentless, as was
the black man's enmity with him. Between white men and
bkck men, and more still between white men and bkck
women, there could be no relationship except those of
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HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
master and servant, or of enemy and enemy. The boer
could only survive by keeping himself apart; only in
apartheid was there any hope for the future of himself, his
children and his race. What was more, his command of a
written language, his superior technological skill, his
possession of things like guns and wagons and, of course, the
Bible, convinced him of the inferiority of his heathen foe.
And now, in September, 1795, the British occupied the
Cape and inherited its frontier troubles. By now there were
about 16,000 white people in the Colony and about 17,000
slaves. Graaff Reinet and Sweliendam reluctantly submitted
to the new government, not expecting to like it any better
than the old. The British commander forbade the Boers to
cross the boundaries. So began the turbulent nineteenth
century, which General Smuts was to call the Century of
Wrong.
20
CHAPTER IV
THE COMING OF THE BRITISH
THE coming of the British to the Cape in 1795 (and
finally in 1806), was the second supreme event of
Afrikaner history. It was the British who scattered
these widely dispersed elements still more widely over the
subcontinent, and who finally welded them afl together
again. This is not to deny the Afrikaners' own part in their
making, but to emphasize the part of the British as external
agent.
It has been said that Afnkanerdom could not exist without
its enemies, and that these are two in number, namely the
British and the Bantu. This generalization has all the defects
of its kind, but conveys a real truth. English-speaking
South Africans are sometimes startled by the speeches of
Afrikaner politicians, who bring out the skeleton of British
Imperialism and set its bones a-jangling, which has the effect
of simultaneously chilling and heating the electoral blood.
But there are signs that the skeleton is losing its power, and
that its place is now being taken by other external enemies,
for example, world opinion, United Nations, Communism,
Mr. Nehru, the new American imperialism, British negro-
philes and, nearer home, the English press and the Anglican
Church, It is a characteristic of Afrikaner nationalism that
it needs these enemies, even while it wistfully wishes it did
21
HOP1 FOR SOUTH AFRICA
not. This ambivalence is strikingly displayed in the govern
ment's attitude towards Ghana, where genuine pleasure over
Ghana's independence is adulterated by the realization that
the Ghanaian is the blood-brother of the enemy at home.
Thus we have the ridiculous, or rather pathetic, spectacle
of a black Ghanaian visitor enjoying a hospitality and an
immunity in South Africa that has never yet been accorded
to any black citizen of the Union.
The arrival of the British at the Cape was followed by a
great expansion of missionary activity. As might be expected,
the attitude of the missionaries to the Hottentots and the
Xosas was not the same as that of the farmers; to the mis
sionaries these indigenous people were souls to be saved, to
the fanner they were labourers in whose education and
social advance he was not much interested, though he some
times took an interest in their spiritual welfare.
The attitude of the British administrators, though by no
means identical with that of the missionaries, was never
theless different from that of the colonists. While nothing
was done in the beginning to weaken the rights of slave
owners, yet the rights of both slaves and servants to good
treatment was confirmed, and the courts were ordered to
see that such treatment was given. One of the earliest results
of this order was the famous Black Circuit of 1811, where
many a white farmer had to face charges of ill-treatment,
preferred against Kim as a result of complaints from a
coloured man. One may say that two new ideas entered the
Cape at this time; or alternatively that two old ideas were
suddenly remembered, namely the equality of all men before
God, and the equality of all men before the law.
22
THE COMING OF THE BRITISH
So officials, colonists and missionaries lived in an uneasy
triangular rektionsMp. The officials had to consider the
difficulties of the farmers, but they had to consider also the
powerful support in England for the missionaries. These
missionaries sent back reports to England, some of them
hostile to the colonists.
Equally were the colonists hostile to the missionaries.
Hottentots flocked to the mission stations, where they found
conditions easier than on the farms. The fanners, as is always
the case in South Africa, were short of labour, and regarded
the religious zeal of the Hottentots as so much pretence,
which no doubt it often was. They were angered also by
the acts of missionary Vanderkemp who, himself no longer
young, married a Hottentot girl whose sole possessions were
two sheepskins and some beads. Times had changed since
Eva married the surgeon van Meerhof with the approval of
the Commander. By his marriage this newcomer, this
uitlander (outknder), had affironted Afrikaner opinion; and,
what is more, the colonist could see no point in educating
non-white people for a life that simply did not exist and for
which they would have been in any case unfitted in his
view.
There is an important point to be noted here, and that is
that most of the missionaries were British. This animus
against the missionaries has persisted in South Africa to this
very day, and was undoubtedly one of the chief motives
behind the Bantu Education Act of 1954, which brought
missionary education almost to an end and refused to allow
famous institutions such as the century-old Adams College,
Huddleston's St. Peter's in Rosettenviie and the Methodist
Kilnerton College to continue as private schools. But while
these losses are being suffered, the missionary work of the
Dutch Reformed Churches, once negligible, is expanding
23
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
rapidly; the Afrikaner Nationalist cannot really feel safe
until even African religion is in his hands.
In 1815, under this new British rule, a Hottentot servant
complained of the treatment he had received from his
master, Frederick Bezuidenhout. Bezuidenhout treated
the summons of the court with contempt, and a European
officer with Hottentot soldiers was sent to arrest him. To
send Hottentots to arrest a white man had never been done
before. Bezuidenhout fought the party from a cave, but was
killed. At Ms funeral his brother swore to avenge this out
rage and he and his friends rebelled. The rebellion was soon
put down, and five of the men were publicly hanged by
Lord Charles Somerset at Slagter's Nek. It is not clearly
known what the reaction of the farmers was to this grim
event; but in later times the hanged men were looked upon
as martyrs who had died for die cause of the Afrikaner
against the British Government, the missionaries and the
cursed doctrines of equality. Slagter's Nek is to this day
remembered, one of the great and bitter events of the
Century of Wrong.
In 1820 came the first large group of English-speaking
colonists, about 5,000 in number. Most of the settlers came
to the disturbed frontier area, and founded the towns of
Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown. One result of their
coming was to make the British Government attempt to
anglicize the Afrikaner Dutch, and English took the place
of Dutch as the official language. The Dutch landdrosts
were replaced by magistrates, the Dutch ris-dollars by
pounds, shillings and pence, and only English and Latin
were taught in the state-aided schools. This attempt at
anglicization angered the Afrikaner Dutch, and even today
the name of the Governor, Lord Charles Somerset, is
remembered with detestation.
24
THE COMING OF THE BRITISH
Another important event of this period is the passage of the
50th Ordinance, which secured the dvil rights of coloured
people. This evidence of a further move towards equality
also angered the farmers. They saw the weakening of author
ity over the Hottentots; they feared increased vagrancy and
idleness, and further shortages of labour.
Then came another important event, the order for the
emancipation of 800,000 slaves through the British Empire.
For South African skves worth .2,800,000 compensation of
.1,250,000 was to be paid, and that in London. Speculators
visited the farms and bought up the claims at a heavy
discount.
Finally in 1834 there was the Sixth Kaffir War.* The
Xosas poured across the frontier, burning, destroying and
killing. The Governor, Sir Benjamin D'Urban, fixed a new
frontier, the Kei River, which was another eighty miles
farther north. He proclaimed the new province of Queen.
Adelaide, and offered protection to all. Just when the
farmers, who were hungry for more land, were congratula
ting themselves on their new Governor, the British
Government reversed his policy, brought the frontier back
to the Fish River, and declared that 'the Kaffirs had an
ample justification' for the war.
This was the last straw for the farmers. They had had
enough of British government, British missionaries, British
public opinion. The Hottentots had been granted unheard
of rights, the slaves had been freed, black men were being
treated like white men, their whole patriarchal world was
*The word Icaffir' is the mod: offensive that any European can use of an
Afriran. It still lingers on in terms such as "KafcWais*, which Africans prefer to
call 'EtontierWars*. It also lingers on, causing insoluble problems, in names such as
c fcafikboom* the beantifel flowering tree Erythnna affia. A gardener may use
this Latin name, or he may use the Zola name, 'rnnigmT, bat very few people "will
know what he is tallrmg about. ProWem-consoons gardeners refer to it wryly as
the 'African boom* or 'African tree" !
o 25
HOPE FOR SOUTH ABRICA
tumbling about their ears. So, party by party, beginning in
1836, they set out north on the Great Trek, climbing the
mountains onto the great interior plain, crossing the Orange
River into the grasslands, in the direction of Kimberley*
Bloemfontein, Johannesburg, Pretoria, all yet unborn,
crossing east over the Drakensberg into Natal where the
missionary Gardiner had given the name of Durban to the
little trading settlement at Port Natal. Among the many
trekkers, computed to have been over 5,000 in number, was
a young lad often, Paul Kruger, who sixty-three years later
was to lead his Transvaal Republic against Britain in the
Anglo-Boer War.
'We quit this Colony,* wrote Pieter Retief, one of the
foremost Voortxekkers, 'under the full assurance that the
English Government has nothing more to require of us,
and will allow us to govern ourselves without its inter
ference in future/ Retief 's English neighbours (for the
Border was a largely English-speaking area) saw him go
with regret, and presented him with a Bible to take on his
journey.
It will be seen that there were many causes for the Great
Trek, one of them being undoubtedly the hunger for land,
which had been causing expansion incessantly since 1652.
The Great Trek, though it had spontaneous characteristics,
had nevertheless been prepared for by preliminary journeys
made by scouts into the far interior. But undoubtedly the
deepest cause of the trek was the incompatibility of British
Government with Afrikaner Boer, particularly in their
respective views on the vexed matter of race and colour.
Even today nothing is resented more by the Afrikaner, and
indeed by most white South Africans, than to have their
racial policies criticized by European or American; the critic
is told that 'he has not lived in the country*. If this critic is an
26
THE COMING OF THE BRITISH
Englishman, a missionary, an Anglican, Ms criticism is still
more resented. At times this resentment will go so far as to
extend itself to the English-speaking South African, who has
not yet been 300 years in the country, though this argument
has fallen into disuse since Dr. Verwoerd, Mr. Strijdom's
lieutenant, came to his present position of almost dictatorial
power, because Dr. Verwoerd was bom in Europe, and was
two years old when his father emigrated to South Africa.
A Voortrekker woman, Anna Steenkamp, sister of Pieter
Relief, wrote what to my mind is the most important
statement on the Great Trek. She wrote \ the shameful
and unjust proceedings with reference to the freeing of our
slaves; and yet it is not so much their freeing which drove us
to such lengths, as their being placed on an equal footing
with Christians, contrary to the laws of God, and the
natural distinctions of race and colour, so that it was in
tolerable for any decent Christian to bow down beneath
such a yoke; wherefore we rather withdrew in order to
preserve our doctrines in purity/
Here was Pieter Retie an upright and respected man,
obviously one of substance and integrity, and not lacking
in determination and courage. But to him the liberal idea of
a common society to which both white and black might
belong was unthinkable; what was more, it would remain
unthinkable. For him, as for Ms sister, there were natural
distinctions of race and colour. It might be said that for him
race was an immutable category. Apartheid was therefore
for Mm a morality, a religion, a philosophy, and a politics 1 '
all in one. It is necessary to understand this if we are to
understand present-day South Africa.
It was a courageous act on the part of the Voortrekkers,
when they knew so well the fighting qualities of the African
tribes, to go still farther into the interior. But two things
27
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
favoured them; one was their superior technology, that Is,
their guns, the other was the state of chaos in the interior,
owing to the fact that Shaka, the fighting King of the Zulus,
had set tribe after tribe, and faction after faction, fleeing from
him and from one another, in directions radiating from
Zululand like the spokes of a wheel, affecting African life
as far north as Nyasaland.
Shaka was succeeded by Dingaan, and when Relief had
crossed over the escarpment of the Drakensberg into Natal,
he left a few men and all the women and children encamped,
and with sixty followers went to see the Zulu king in order
to make a treaty. Retiefandhis whole party were slaughtered
by the king, who promptly sent 10,000 warriors to the
encampment and killed all who were there, at a place there
after to be called Weenen, which name means weeping.
The trekkers found a new leader in Andries Pretorius, after
whom Pretoria was named. On December 16, 1838, after
having vowed to God to keep the day holy if He would
give them victory, Pretorius humbled Dingaan's armies at
the battle of Blood River. It is said that three Boers were
slighdy wounded, but that 3,000 Zulus were slain.
Thus December 16 was called Dingaan's Day for more
than a century, and only recently has its name been changed
to the Day of the Covenant. It is religiously observed by
many Afrikaners, but not by English-speaking South
Africans, who, until prevented by a growing uneasiness
(partly caused by the increasing power of Afrikaner National
ism) and finally by law, used it to hold race-meetings and
cricket matches. It is fair to say that the Day of the "Covenant
means little to the English-speaking South African, while to
the African, the black man, it gives offence. And indeed
this is not surprising, for the Day is often used by Afrikaner
speakers to dwell on the bitter enmities of die past and the
28
THE COMING OF THE BRITISH
necessity for continuing them into the future. Nothing
could show more clearly than the Day of the Covenant the
terrible divisions of South Africa.
On December 16, 1938, one hundred years after the battle
of Blood River, was kid the foundation stone of the great
Voortrekker Monument, now standing on a commanding
site on one of the Pretoria hills. The Monument was built
to commemorate the struggle of Christianity against
Barbarism, which means, to put it bluntly, the struggle of
the Voortretkers against the African people. This struggle
is portrayed, by means of a magnificent frieze in Italian
marble, in restrained and dignified fashion, but the shrine
remains first and last an Afrikaner shrine, though it may be
visited by non-white people on Tuesday afternoons. One
here records with deep regret that this most sacred shrine
of Afrikaner pride and piety evokes no more than a cold
respect from anyone who is not an Afrikaner. The symbolic
laager of wagons which surrounds the monument and was
intended to shut out anything that is non- Afrikaner, succeeds
only too well in its excluding purpose.
29
CHAPTER V
'THE CENTURY OF WRONG 5
THE battle of Blood River was a decisive event. The
interior of South. Africa fell to the invader, even
though only after a determined struggle. Moshesh
managed to keep Basutoland free, but in 1864 he put his
country under the protection of the Queen. In 1885 Bechu-
analand came under the same protection, but the position
of Swaziland remained ambiguous until 1903, when it too
became a country protected by Britain. These are the three
countries often referred to as the protectorates, which the
South African Government has consistently wished to
incorporate in the Union; but up till now Britain has
consistently refused her consent. She is in fact shortly to
introduce a modified form of responsible government in
Basutoland.
Meanwhile in 1853 the Cape Colony was granted repre
sentative government, and a non-racial franchise. In 1852, by
the Sand River Convention, Britain assured the Transvaalers
that she would no longer concern herself with their affairs,
and in 1854, by the Bloemfontein Convration, she gave the
Orange Free State a similar assurance. It is significant that
the South African Republic (not the only independent
Transvaal state at that time) was based on a constitution that
declared e no equality in church or state'.
30
*THE CENTURY OF WRONG*
The Voortrekkers also established the RepubEc of Natal
in 1838, but it was short-lived. British traders and mis
sionaries had been active at Durban Bay and along the
Natal coast since 1824, and had actually obtained a grant of
land from the Zulu king Shaka before he was murdered by
Dingaan. However, the British Government made no>
move to recognize this settlement until the Boer Republic,,
in 1841, sent a punitive expedition to the south against the
Bacas, who had stolen some cattle. Still further south, the
Pondos, fearing worse to come, appealed to the Cape
Government, whereupon the British annexed Natal. The
boers besieged the British in Durban and Dick King made
his famous ride of 600 miles to Grahamstown in ten days,
through a wild and unknown country, to ask for reinforce
ments. As a result of these events most of the Voortrekkers
trekked back over the escarpment, and Natal, as a result of
immigration, became the largely English-speaking pro
vince that it is today, if we consider only its white
inhabitants. Otherwise considered, it was, and still is,
predominantly Zulu-speaking.
Dick King is today a hero, and his statue stands on the
Esplanade in Durban. Some English-speaking people,
envious of the Afrikaans periodical re-enactments of
historic events, "would like to see the famous ride re-enacted
every May 25. But the truth is that English-speaking people
are not capable of emulating the Afrikaner's commemor
ative fervour.
In 1856 .Natal . became a British p Crown Colony, also
initially with a franchise not based on colour. In Natal,
the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, the white man,
by virtue of his armaments, subdued the tribesmen; he
allowed many of them to settle on his farms, for the others
he created areas called Reserves. Today in South Africa*-
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
these Reserves constitute about 13% of the total land area,
while the African people constitute about 66% of the total
population. TMs remains one of their deep grievances, healed
to some extent by urbanisation, but breaking out again
now that the policy of the government is to regard the
Reserves as the home of the African, and to regard the town-
dweller as a 'temporary sojoumer* in the white man's
territory,
It is today claimed that the reserve policy was motivated
by the loftiest feelings. But it will do us no harm to recog
nize it as a policy of conquer, divide and rule, offering to the
conquered a restricted life in a restricted area, encouraging
him to come out of his Reserve to work, and subjecting him
in the city to a host of restrictive regulations, some of which
are quite pitiless in their operation. In the towns and
villages the African people live in locations, their entry and
departure are controlled, and the legislation which governs
their lives is open to manifold abuses. It is only in recent
years that the conscience of white South Africa has become
increasingly troubled by the squalor of the locations, and
more has been done to improve the material conditions
under the present Nationalist Government than under.
any other. But the vicious laws remain.*
On the whole, relations between the British and the
Boers began to improve after the Great Trek, and they
might have gone on improving if a trader called "O'Reilly
had not seen the 'pretty Orange River stone' at the home of
Mr. van Niekerk in 1 866, in the dry country near Kimberley.
*An African boy, Iving with ins family in a location, may on attaining the age
of 16 be ordered by the Location Superintendent to return to the place of his birth.
32
THE CENTURY OF WRONG
The Boer republic of the Orange Free State claimed this
area, under the Bloemfontein Convention of 1854, by which
the British guaranteed the independence of the country
between the Orange and the VaaL But a Griqua chief named
Waterboer also claimed the area, and when he applied to
the British for protection they annexed his territory. In
1876, in the light of further evidence, the British Govern
ment paid the Orange Free State an amount of 90,000 in
compensation, but the damage had been done.
Meanwhile the other Boer republic, the Transvaal, almost
bankrupt, was seriously threatened by disturbances in the
large reserve of Sekhukhuneland. With this as reason, but
no doubt with the further intention of achieving the unifica
tion of South Africa under the Union Jack, the British
annexed the Transvaal in 1877. This not only further
antagonised the two republics, but also many Afrikaners
who had remained behind in the Cape Colony. Slowly
but surely the British Government was uniting such opinion
throughout South Africa; it was about this time indeed that
the unifying name of Afrikaner, as distinct from Trans-
vaaler, Free Stater and Cape Colonial, began to come more
and more into use. It began to appear to the Boers that the
British Empire, despite the Conventions of Bloemfontein
and Sand River, was intent on swallowing up the Republics;
so that what had been an anti-Government feeling began to
change into something more specifically anti-British.
In 1880 the Transvaal Burghers rose; the British suffered
a severe defeat at Majuba, which is another event that
remains forever green in Afrikaner memory. In 1881 the war
ended without victory; self-government was restored to
the Transvaal, but in foreign affairs it was to be subject to
the Queen's suzerainty. There was however a strong senti
ment for complete independence, and Paul Kruger, who
33
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
became President in 1883, became the embodiment of
it.
The next great event to hit South Africa was thejiscovery
of gold on the "Witwatersrand in 1886. Cecil Rhodes already
controlled the Diamond Fields; he was now a millionaire
and had great dreams of an all-British route from the Cape
to Cairo and of the unification of South Africa under the
Union Jack. But Kruger stood in his way; therefore Rhodes
sought to contain and confine the Transvaal Republic.
He became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, acquired the
territory of British Bechuanaland (which is not to be
confused with Bechuanaland Protectorate) and established
the new country of Rhodesia. So, with Mozambique to
the east and Natal to the south, Kruger was contained.
Then Rhodes turned his attention to the Witwatersrand
itself, where he already had great financial interests. Into
Johannesburg had poured thousands of immigrants, called
the uitlanders by the outnumbered Boers. Kruger altered the
voting qualifications to prevent the immigrants from
securing control There was great dissatisfaction, and Rhodes
meant to use it. In 1895 his friend Jameson, having failed to
receive an urgent message ordering him to desist, entered
the Transvaal with 500 armed men in the famous Jameson
Raid. The hoped-for rising of the uitlanders failed to
come off, the British Government repudiated the raiders,
and Jameson had to surrender ignominiously to Cronje.
Kruger, against the advice of some of his more stubborn
commandants, handed the whole party over to the British
authorities for punishment.
That was the end of the influence of Cecil Rhodes in South
Africa. He was a great man with great ideas; he controlled
Kimberley at 27, built great houses, became a Prime Minister,
gave his name to a country, founded the most famous
34
THE CENTUHY OF WRONG
scholarships in history and chose for himself one of the
grandest burial places in the world. He expected to be
remembered for 4,000 years, but, except on ceremonial
occasions in Rhodesia, he is remembered chiefly for the
incalculable harm that he did to Anglo-Afrikaner relations.
Krager, encouraged by the failure of the raid, now took a
stronger line with the uidanders. But the British Govern
ment sent out as High Commissioner an opponent harder
and colder than Rhodes, namely Alfred (later Lord) Milner.
That he must bear the major blame for the Anglo-Boer
War is clear from his papers, which are published for all to
read.
In October, 1899, the Republics declared war on Britain.
It was called a 'gentleman's war' and was generally free of
brutality and atrocity. The British command pursued a
'scorched earth* policy; it burned the farms and put the
women and children into concentration camps, where over
20,000 of them died, mostly because of insanitary conditions
that were improved when the rising number of deaths
shocked the military into action. This is another of the
tragic events of the Century of Wrong that is freshly
remembered, that seems never likely to be forgotten, that
even today is argued about by correspondents to the news
papers, in angry and bitter terms.
The war could end in only one way, and on May 31,
1902, the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed. The two
republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal became
British colonies, the former now being known as the
Orange River Colony. The unification of the four British
colonies was thus brought nearer, but its two white races
had never been further apart.
35
CHAPTER VI
THE RISE OF THE AFRIKANER
l& FTER the Anglo-Boer War, there was a period of
f-\ energetic reconstruction in which the Governor of
JL JL the two new colonies, Lord Milner, played an out
standing and admirable part. But he was an autocrat, and
entertained the foolish plan of anglicizing the Boer popula
tion. Luckily there were great-minded men in Britain and
South Africa at this time. In 1905 Campbell-Bannerman and
the Liberal Party came into power in Britain, and in 1906
restored self-government to the Transvaal, and in 1907 to
the Orange River Colony. The first Prime Minister of the
Transvaal was the Boer General Louis Botha, with the Boer
General Smuts as Secretary of State. The first Prime Minister
of the Orange River Colony was Mr. Abraham Fischer,
with the Boer General Hertzog as his Attorney-General.
English was to be the official language, but Dutch could be
freely used in debates. The vote was limited to European
adult males in these two colonies.
The importance of these events could hardly be over
estimated. They marked the end of British Imperialism.
They marked the approaching end of the colonial age and
the beginning of an age of liberation and turbulence which
has by no means reached its end.
In 1910 all four., .colonies, formed the Union of South
36
THE RISE OF THE AFRIKANER
Africa, and its first Prime Minister was General Louis Botha.
Racial conciliation was in the air. The English and Dutch
languages were declared equal. A wave of goodwill spread
over the country. The Cape of Good Hope, which in 1853
had achieved self^govemment, had a non-racial franchise
and several thousands of Cape Coloured and African voters;
this franchise was to be preserved, but not to be extended to
the other three provinces of the Union. Further, it could
only be altered by a two-thirds majority of both Houses
sitting together. These conditions were not secured, as many
Afrikaner Nationalists suppose today, by the intervention
of the British Government, but by representatives of the
Cape Colony itself. All four colonies agreed, however, that
whatever the voting rights of non-white people, no non-
white person might be elected to either House of Parliament.
And lastly, on the insistence of the rural areas of the Cape
and Free State, it was agreed that a rural constituency might
be underloaded up to 15%, and an urban one overloaded up
to 15%. This had far-reaching consequences in later years.
But although there was much talk of brotherhood and
reconciliation between the white races, there were large
numbers of Afrikaner Nationalists who would have nothing
to do with it. They were too near to the events of the
Century of Wrong. They welcomed the recognition of
Dutch, but they wanted rather the recognition of Afrikaans.
Jealously they guarded everything that was peculiar to
themselves, knowing the dangers of an alien culture; for
were there not Afrikaners in the Cape who had become
more English than the English? Above all, they insisted that
their children should be educated in Afrikaans-medium
schools, and for their young men and women they estab
lished Afrikaans-medium universities.
Afrikaner Nationalism worked openly and boldly for
37
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
political supremacy. After all, Afrikaners outnumbered
English-speaking South Africans, and if only they could be
made Nationalists, if only they would use properly the
franchise now restored to them, if only they would rebuild
their own and not be misled by soft words, then one
day they would not only win back the old Republics,
but would establish the new Republic of South Africa.
Then would Afrikanerdom be triumphant, and South Africa
would truly belong to those who had suffered for her so
greatly.
The Nationalists now set out to accomplish this task. In
1912 General Hertzog broke away from General Botha, and
formed the small Nationalist Party. In 1914 came the First .
World War, and General Botha took South Africa into it
at the side of Great Britain; but much of Afrikaans-speaking
South Africa would have nothing to do with a 'British' war.
Some rebelled; one named Jopie Fourie was shot as a traitor,
and he, too, went to join the ranks of the martyrs of
Slagter's Nek.
In 1924 the Nationalists under General Hertzog, aided by a
small largely-English-speaking Labour Party, captured the
Government. One of their first acts was to establish Afrikaans
as equal with English. Another was to get away from the
hated Union Jack, and to have a Union Flag; this was
bitterly opposed by English-speaking South Africa, and the
compromise is the flag we know today, the flag of Orange,
with, superimposed on the middle bar, three small flags,
replicas of the Union Jack and the two republican flags.
Dr, Malan called this the scab' and said it would one day
Ml off. Another important event was when the British
Parliament passed the Statute of Westminster in 1931,
declaring the absolute equality of status of all Dominions
within the British Commonwealth of Nations, which were
38
THE RISE OF THE AFRIKANER
united only by their common allegiance to the Crown,
South Africa thus became the equal of Great Britain and the
mistress of her own destinies.
English-speaking South Africa, which, after Botha's
death, had given almost full support to Smuts, was relieved
when Hertzog and Smuts joined in 1933, in the United
Party. But a small number of Nationalists again stood aloof,
this time under Dr. Malan.
In 1936 Hertzog obtained the necessary two-thirds
majority in a joint sitting for the transfer of all African voters
to a separate roll. Eleven members out of 190 opposed the
change, led by J. H. Hofineyr. In 1938 'Die Stem van Suid-
afrika became a national anthem alongside of 'God Save
the King'.
In 1939 came the Second World War. Hertzog and
Smuts differed violently, but Smuts with a majority of
thirteen votes again led South Africa into war at the side of
Great Britain. Hertzog was reunited with Malan and the
Nationalists, but soon after died. There was no rebellion;
very many Afrikaners joined the forces, but on the whole
the Dutch Reformed Churches, the Afrikaner cultural
societies, the Afrikaans-medium schools, the Universities
of Stellenbosch, Bloemfontein, Potchefstroom and Pretoria,
stood quite aloo
Smuts and his United Party came victoriously through
the war, but were defeated by Malan and his Nationalists in
1948. This was the first all-Afrikaner Government in South
Africa; it held the majority of seats, but owing to the
underloading and overloading mentioned above, it did
so by a minority of votes.
How did the Nationalists finally get in? Who put them
in? There is no doubt that with a few exceptions they were
put in by the Afrikaner people. There is no doubt that at
39
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
no time in their long history had so many of the Afrikaners
thought as one. After forty years of Union, during which
there had been a minimum of brawling, public and private
fighting and violence, the English-speaking and the Afri
kaans-speaking South Africans had never been so divided.
And why did they get in? There is no doubt that they got
in because they promised to solve the racial problems of the
Union in the traditional Boer way, by the methods of
separation or apartheid; that is, by separating the races in
schools, universities, residential areas, occupations and
professions, trains and buses, entrances and exits, libraries,
halls, and in every other desirable way. At last the Afrikaner
people had a chance to make good the wrong turning
that history had taken when the British and their mis-
sionaries came to the Cape, and to re-assert the supremacy
of the white man. In the words of the Grondwet, tie Con
stitution, of the Transvaal Republic, there was to be 'no
equality in Church or State*.
One of the cries of the 1948 election was that Hofineyr
must be destroyed. It was he who had opposed the transfer
of African voters to a separate roll. It was he who had
resisted Smuts' attempts to restrict Indians to certain areas.
It was he who always insisted that the brotherhood of man
must be translated into political terms. On December 3,
19485 he died, some said of a broken heart, rightly I think.
No man in South Africa foresaw so clearly how ruthlessly
the Nationalists would carry out their policy of apartheid.
The first year of office was relatively quiet. The recently
granted Parliamentary representation for Indians was
repealed. Immigration was curtailed, because immigrants
had an unfortunate habit of siding with the United Party.
Malan called the United Nations a 'menace to liberty' and
threatened to leave the organization rather than subject
40
THE RISE OF THE AFRIKANER
the mandated territory of South-West Africa (the one-time
German colony) to U.N. inspection. Malan's lieutenant,
Strijdom, said that resistance to apartheid was treasonable.
The Minister of Education ait down the grants for feeding
African schoolchildren and the animus of the Government
against inter-racial trade unions was clearly revealed.
In 1949 came the Mixed Marriages Act, and the
Government closed twenty-one cities and towns to African
work-seekers. In 1950 came the Population Registration Act,
introducing a scheme of classification by which the race of
all persons would be once and forever determined, a
measure which was to cause unspeakable suffering, and to
cause wives to repudiate husbands and children to hate
fathers, because fear of ostracism was now great enough to
overcome love of kindred. This Population Registration
Act was essential to Acts like the Mixed Marriages Act, the
Immorality Act, and especially now to the new Group Areas
Act, which was to divide the whole Union into racial areas.
In presenting the Group Areas Bill to Parliament, Dr.
Donges, Minister of the Interior, said that it would be
implemented 'with justice to all*. One of the first effects
of the Act has been to expel Indian traders in the Transvaal
from the centres of all cities and towns; in Johannesburg the
expulsion will be to the bare veld twenty miles from the
city. Another effect has been to expel African owners from
freehold sites, and to oflfer them other sites where they may
not purchase land. In every declaration of group areas it is
always the white group that is left alone; in the city of Dur
ban it is estimated that 3,000 whites will be moved, and over
100,000 other persons. The Act further gave inspectors
the right to oiter any dwelling by day or by night, and
without notice. The United Party supported this evil
legislation, because while it believes in economic integration,
41
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
It also believes in social and residential separation enforced
by law.
Also in 1950 came the Suppression of Communism Act,
under which the Minister might 'deem' any person to be a
Communist, and compel him to resign from all societies and
organizations, and forbid him to speak publicly or to enter
certain areas. There is no appeal from any such ban. On
Labour Day the African and Indian Congresses held a
protest meeting on the Rand and lost eighteen killed in
fighting with the police. The first South-West Africa
elections, giving to white voters a representation three
times as generous as in the Union, were a triumph for Malan,
giving him four more Senators and six more M.P.s. On
September n, 1950, Smuts died; and Dr. Jansen having
resigned to become Governor-General, Dr. Verwperd was
appointed Minister of Native Affairs. He was to be the
Supreme Architect of apartheid.
In 1951 came the Bantu Authorities Act, which got rid of
the troublesome Native Representative Council and began
creating a hierarchy of authorities all under the Minister of
Native Affairs. In the struggle to remove Coloured voters
from the common roll, the Government, acting on the
assumption that the Statute of Westminster freed the now
autonomous Union of South Africa from any obligation
to observe the entrenchments of the Constitution, voted the
removal by an ordinary majority. The Minister of Education
threatened the withholding of grants from cultural societies
that did not observe the colour bar, and the Christian
Education Movement, for one, decided to continue without
State support. Passports were made Government property,
and several hundreds of people were 'named* under the
Suppression of Communism Act. The exciting event of the
year was the formation of the Torch Commando ; thousands
42
THE RISE OF THE AFRIKANER
of ex-servicemen and others marched on Cape Town and
demonstrated against the removal of Coloured voters, and
the Commando was at first able to conceal Its typically
White-South-Africa dilemma, namely that it was defending
the rights of coloured people, but was not prepared to make
common cause with them. The Commando went from
strength to strength, the flush of fever disguising its fatal
malady.
In 19^52 Dr. Verwoerd introduced his Bantu Urban
Authorities Act, whereby he hoped still further to divide
and rule the African people. The Appellate Court invalidated
the Separate Representation of Voters Act, whereupon the
Government secured the passing of the High Court of
Parliament Act, making Parliament an Appellate Court of
higher status than the one in Bloemfontein. The exciting
event of this year was the launching of the Resistance move
ment, and many thousands of non-white volunteers broke
the apartheid laws, to be joined later by Patrick Duncan, son
of the late Sir Patrick Duncan, first South African citizen to
be appointed Governor-General, and other Europeans, The
High Court of Parliament invalidated the Appellate invali
dation, and the Cape Supreme Court invalidated the High
Court invalidation, and was on appeal supported by the
Appellate Court. The Resistance Movement was marred
by ugly riots at Port Elizabeth and East London, in which
Europeans were killed; the leaders disowned the rioters,
but their resistance was believed by many people to have
opened the door to lawless elements. The white Congress
of Democrats was formed, a radical organization resolutely
opposed to apartheid and destined to co-operate closely
with the African and Indian Congresses. So came to an end
a troubled year.
In 1953 Parliament passed the Public Safety Act, carried
43
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
with nine dissentients and supported by the United Party.
The Criminal Law Amendment Act was passed to counter
act the Resistance Movement, providing for penalties of
.300 and/or three years and/or lashes for law-breaking
by way of protest, and penalties of ^500 and/or five years
and/or kshes for incitement to protest. This brought the
Resistance Movement to an end, and many of its leaders
were banned, including ex-Chief Luthuli, President-
General of the African National Congress.
In the General Elections the Nationalists secured nine
more seats, though still with a minority of votes. This led
to the formation of the Liberal Party to replace the Liberal
Association; the Party observed no colour bar in member
ship and opposed all discriminatory laws. The Federal Party
also came into being, declaring its opposition to a republic,
and its support for a federal constitution, but taking no
firm stand on the question of racial discrimination. But
tragically the Torch Commando went into a decline.
Parliament passed the Separate Amenities Act, which
empowered authorities to maintain and set up facilities
separate but not equal for the various races. Dr. Malan,
the Prime Minister, tried again for a two-thirds majority
to remove Coloured voters to a separate roll, but failed. The
reservation of occupations to specific racial groups was
foreshadowed, and Dr. Malan threatened those universities
which admitted non-white students and again pressed the
claim of South Africa to incorporate the Protectorates.
In 1954 Dr. Malan failed again to secure a two-thirds
majority to remove the Coloured voters, being unable to
persuade the United Party to support him. The dreaded
Industrial Conciliation Act was passed, permitting no trade
unions for Africans, no multi-racial unions, and allowing
the Minister to allocate occupations on a racial basis. The
44
THE RISE OF THE AFRIKANER
forty-year-old freehold African suburb of Johannesburg
called SopMatown was declared a white area, and Dr.
Verwoerd, having failed to secure the co-operation of the
Johannesburg City Council, secured the passing of an Act
to establish a Native Resettlement Board to remove the
residents of Sophiatown to Meadowlands, where they would
enjoy no freehold rights. This was done in pursuance of the
theory that the African was a 'temperorary dweller' in the
cities, and excited wonder in the minds of dispassionate
observers that the Minister could so foolishly destroy an
African land-owning class that would not be likely to lend
itself to revolution or violence. Dr. Verwoerd also sponsored
the Bantu Education Act, which meant the end of missionary
activity in the field of education. The Minister said in the
House that there was no pkce for Africans in the European
community c above the level of certain forms of labour*.
Bantu schools were to be community schools, not under
missionary control, but under the control of community
committees, controlled not by the community, but by the
Minister, Those schools which wished to continue as
private schools must gain the consent of the Minister. The
Dutch Reformed Churches approved the Act, as did some
of the subservient foreign missions; but the other churches
protested.
In December was held a Multi-racial Church Conference
in Johannesburg, under the aegis of the Dutch Reformed
Churches, in which speakers and delegates of all races took
part, although they sat and ate separately. The United Party
promised a new non-European policy, but Its Congress
produced virtually nothing; and the overwhelmingly
English-speaking Natal Provincial Council forbade inter
racial sport at any of its educational institutions. Another
gloomy year.
45
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
In 1955 Malan resigned, and Strijdom succeeded him. He
saw the future as a struggle between Nationalism and
Liberalism, but promised 'white supremacy with justice for
all*. The Group Areas Act was further amended to speed up
the proclamations, which were being delayed by the tactics
of the Indian Congress, and the Group Areas Development
Act was passed, which empowered the authorities, after
hearing representations, to value properties, from which
valuation there was no appeal.
On June 25 and 26, the Congress of the People was held
at Kliptown. Three thousand delegates attended and adopted
the Freedom Charter, a declaration of human rights. The
great event of the year was the passing of the Senate Act,
which reconstituted the Senate, increasing it from 48 to 89,
and giving the Government 77 of the 89 seats. So Strijdom
secured his two-thirds majority, and passed the Separate
Representations of Coloured Voters Act, which the
enlarged Appellate Court, increased from five to eleven by
the Appellate Court Act, validated on appeal by ten to one,
Air. Justice Schreiner dissenting. Meanwhile white women
of South Africa had formed the 'Black Sash', an organization
for the defence of the Constitution, and women wearing
black sashes as a sign of mourning for the dying Constitu
tion held vigils and 'haunted' Ministers when they opened
bridges, conferences and buildings.
Disgusting methods were used by Government officials as
they classified people for the Population Register under the
Population Registration Act. Combs and pencils were
passed through the hair of persons to determine whether
they were African or Coloured, and intimate and insulting
questions were asked. Parliament passed the Departure
from the Union Regulation Act, to regulate the visits
abroad of persons likely to harm the Union and its lawful
46
THE KISE OF THE AFRIKANER
government. Dr. Charles Warren, the Negro member of
an American study group, was refused entry to the Union.
The long-awaited Tomlinson report, which the Govern
ment hoped would justify apartheid, was published; but it
estimated that in A.D. 2000, white people would grill be far
outnumbered in the white areas, no matter what the
development of the native reserves. The Tomlinson Com
mission also recommended the spending of over
.100,000,000 on the development of the reserves in ten
years, whereupon the Government voted ^3,500,000.
This was a great blow to the total separationists, but they
still persist in advocating total separation. The Catholics
decided to run their schools unaided, and raised a sum of
-750,000, but it remained uncertain whether they would
secure the necessary permission. Adams College, the
century-old mission school in Natal, though it had secured
the necessary finance, was refused permission, and had to
close down.
One of the most totalitarian laws of the year was the
Natives (Prohibition of Interdicts) Act, which prohibited
any court from granting an interdict to any African ordered
to remove from an urban location by an order which came
or "purported' to come from the appropriate official; the
African resident must first remove himself, and only there
after could he take proceedings, during which rime his job
and his home might well have been given to some other
person. Not even if the order were served wrongly upon
him, not even if the order had been in fact intended for
quite some other person, could he obtain an interdict. Still
another bad year.
In 1957 the Fort Hare University Transfer Bill and the
Separate University Education Bill gave notice of the Gov
ernment's intention to provide wholly separate university
47
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
education for non-white students, and to carry out Dr.
Malan's direat against the "open 9 universities of Capetown
and the Witwatersrand, which admitted non-white students.
These matters were referred to a Parliamentary Commission,
but it is expected that later this year (1958) the Government
will provide for the eventual if not immediate total separa
tion of white university education from non-white. The
commotion of the year was provided by the famous church
clause of the Native Laws Amendment Act,, wMch gave the
Minister, after securing the concurrence of the local authority,
the right to forbid Africans to attend church services in white
urban areas, as wel as other rights over attendance of
Africans at other places. The church clause was vigorously
opposed by the white English-speakkg churches, but the
Dutch Reformed Churches received assurances from the
Minister that satisfied them. Many church leaders advised
followers to disobey the law, a grave action without
precedent in our history.
However, later in the year the new Group Areas Act
achieved quietly what Dr. Verwoerd had achieved in a
glare of world publicity. It defined 'occupation* of an area
otter than one's own in such a way as to threaten almost any
kind of inter-racial association. The Nursing Act created
separate racial registers, the whole profession to be con
trolled by an all-white Council, which, was empowered to
prescribe different courses for different races, as well as
different uniforms and badges. Another bad year.
Just before the General Election of 1958 the first elections
for the now separated coloured voters were held. It was
estimated that only 30% of the possible total of Coloured
voters had bothered to register, and of these only two-fifths
voted. It was estimated that young Coloured people boy
cotted the elections almost completely. The four United
48
THE USE OF THE AFRIKANER
Party candidates won the four seals easily, completely
routing the Nationalists, the Liberal Party having decided
not to contest the elections. The authoritative view was that
only older and more conservative Coloured people had
voted, and only a fraction of them, and that they had
registered an overwhelming vote against apartheid, which
was threatening to root them up from their homes and to
remind them at every turn of their inferiority to those
who had played such a great part in their genesis. It is '
generally believed that the Coloured people of South
Africa have never been so cold in their attitude to the
whites.
Then came the General Election. It was won by the
Nationalist Party with 103 seats (a gain of 7) against 53 for
the United Party (a gain of i), these Nationalist gains having
been made at the expense of the United Party, while the
United Party gains were made at the expense of Labour and
Independents. Thus the white electorate moved to the right.
It is estimated that the votes were divided roughly 50:50
between the Nationalists and the United Party. The Labour
Party was wiped out, and the three Liberals, contesting their
first parliamentary election, secured respectively 6%, 7%
and 17% of the poll
The African National Congress decided to call a stay-at-
home strike for April 14, 15 and 16, the last day being the day
of the General Election. The plan had the support of the
other Congresses, was advised against by the Liberal Party
and was condemned by the Nationalists and the United
Party. The Minister of Labour, Mr. Jan de Klerk, threatened
to give the strikers a taste of * white supremacy*, and all police
were alerted. The strike was a failure and was cancelled on
the evening of the first day. It revealed one thing, and that
was the vast amount of organization still required by the
E 49
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
African people if they were to exert significant extra-
parliamentary pressures. It probably also revealed the great
damage that the Government had inflicted on the African
National Congress by Its namings, bannings and arrests
not to mention Its legislation.
When the stay-at-home strike was threatening, Dr.
Verwoerd, Minister of Native Affairs, Invoked the Native
Administration Act of 1927, and forbade meetings of more
than ten Africans In many areas. In order to prevent labour
unrest. TMs ban Is still In operation today (June 22, ten weeks
after the election),* and as a consequence the Liberal Party
has been unable to hold freely attended meetings. Appeals
by the Party to the Secretary for Native Affairs elicited the
Information that the Minister had been extremely busy,
and that he was still gathering information, yet he knew
and must have known that the Liberal Party has no record
of association with labour unrest It suits him to keep the
Liberal Party waiting on him, that Is all; it shows to the
Liberal Party, and to any other person who cares to take
note, who Is the baas.
The last striking event in 1958 was the proclamation of
group areas In the City of Durban, by which 3 ,000 Europeans
and 97,000 people of other races are to be removed. It Is the
Indian community which Is likely to suffer the most grievous
losses; their property, so valuable to them, Is of no value to
the Europeans to whom the area now belongs. It Is true that
under the Group Areas Development Act the authorities
may assign a 'basic' value to any property, but from their
decision there Is no appeal. So apartheid goes on Its cruel and
callous way, hiding behind fine words, but leaving a train
of bitterness and suffering in its wake.
And now we look forward to the first session of our new
*Tfae ban was lifted on Angus 29.
50
THE RISE OF THE AFXIKANER
Parliament, wondering what new fortifications will be
erected, wondering what new folly will be committed in
this fantastic process of making Afrikanerdom safe by the
most dangerous methods in the world-
CHAPTER VII
NO EASY FUTURE
I HOPE that this brief historical account has helped
readers in other countries to understand why Afrikaner
Nationalism has become what it is today, and how
inflexible it appears to be in the matter of race relations.
For some people African Nationalism is the irresistible force,
and Afrikaner Nationalism is the immovable obstacle.
Further, this account should have made it clear that the
liberal idea of a common society is repugnant and repellent to
many Afrikaners, and the fact that the idea was introduced
by the British administrator and missionary has made it even
more so.
And now the Afrikaner Nationalist rules the country and
there seems little possibility at the moment of unseating him.
As a result of this Ms doctrines of apartheid have been
powerfully reinforced, and there can be no doubt that just
as in the past Afrikaners were subject to a process of
anglicization, so now English-speaking people are subject
to a process of Afrikanerization, more particularly in respect
of these doctrines.
It is clear from the results of the 1958 elections that half
of the white voters are in favour of white baasskap and
Afrikaner supremacy, and that those 50% of the voters can
win two-thirds of the seats; it would appear that of the
other half of the voters, the great majority, though not in
52
NO EASY FUTURE
favour of Afrikaner supremacy, are certainly in favour of
white baasskap, although they do not ike the phrase and
prefer white leadership. It would appear that the white elec
torate is not in favour of any political concessions to non-
white people and that the United Party has, since the deaths
of Hofmeyr and Smuts, steadily drifted to the right, through
fear of authority or through hopelessness, or even through a
growing acceptance of the view that white and black
interests are irreconcilable, and that all white people should
stand together.
Furthermore it would appear that in Southern Rhodesia
the white electorate is moving in the same direction; and
might conceivably, after having fled bodily to Rhodesia
for freedom, flee back spiritually to South Africa for
protection.
These are ugly facts, and they must be faced. They are
made still uglier by the possibility, seen so clearly by Hof
meyr, that white action would evoke black counteraction,
and that every repressive act would make conflict more and
more inevitable.* Hofineyr said, 4 Go forward in faith*, but
today this would be regarded by the majority of white
South Africans as highly unpractical, unrealistic and
dangerous.
How does one escape from, this predicament, if one really
believes that to do justice and to do injustice are equally
dangerous? There is one classical escape, and that is through
total apartheid, the thoroughgoing division of South Africa
into separate racial territories, in each of which the racial
group in occupation will ran its own affairs and pursue its
own happiness* The arguments put forward to support total
apartheid are, jr$ that different racial groups cannot Ive in
*Praessor McCrone, of die University of die Witwatos3nd } is the outstanding
exponent of this theme.
53
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
harmony in a common territory, second that subordinate
groups will never receive justice in a common territory.
Nor do I doubt that fear of ultimate disaster is an important
motive.
Professor B. B. Keet has called this the pipe-dream, and no
name could be more appropriate, not merely because the
dream is fanciful, but also because it can be dreamed even
when every points, every event moves, in a contrary
direction. There are I think four insuperable reasons why
total apartheid is impossible; there is no land for it, there is no
money for it, there is no time for it, there is no will for it.
Nevertheless the smokers of this pipe would argue that it
is the liberal vision of a common society open to all that is
in fact the true pipe-dream. There is nothing, they would
argue, in the 300 years of our history to indicate that such
an end Is possible.
What is more, some of the frustrated opponents of the
Government, after the still greater defeat of the 1958
elections, are inclined to say, 'Apartheid Is too strong for us;
It's a waste of time to fight it, let's try to work it/
Finally, the total aparthelder can say, *I am a liberal too.
I'm the Afrikaner liberal. I want apartheid, but I want a just
Why don't you support me? I at least am in
contact with the sources of power/
There are clear and emphatic reasons why liberals of my
persuasion are totally unable to lend support to the forces of
total apartheid, quite apart from the fact that there Is no land,
money, time or will for It,
To us apartheid^ of "whatever brand, Is a rejection of one's
fellow men, not those of Kamchatka and Patagonia, but
those who arc born and live and die in the same land. To
make apartheid total does not fundamentally alter the fact
that it Is a rejection. Total apartheid Is a device whereby one
54
NO EASY FUTURE
can have in imagination rejection and justice simultaneously.
Seen from a religious point of view, total apartheid is love
of one's neighbour, provided he does not live next door.
Our present society has been the joint product of all
South Africa; but some of these assets are quite indivisible;
for example, our cities and harbours, our mines. How could
there be any just division of the country? On the contrary
we believe that these new societies will be condemned
forever to a poor and inferior life. Therefore we reject the
proposition. Further, having seen the suffering and injustice
inflicted by the preliminary measures of apartheid, how can
we possibly believe that the final measures will be some
thing quite different? Apartheid,, whether partial or total, is
essentially something done by someone with power to
someone with none.
But we reject it even more emphatically because we
believe that the vain pursuit of it will postpone still further
the day when all South Africans share equally the duties,
privileges and joys of living in South Africa. And to that
we may add that the pursuit of this goal of fantasy will
turn aside some of our best minds from consideration of the
real problem of creating a common society under out
standingly difficult circumstance.
We have another reason for believing that total apartheid
is a fantasy; for, supposing it could be achieved, how could
the white State watch with equanimity the forging of alli
ances between the non-white State and other countries of
Africa and the world?
This demonstrates the difficulty of our problem. The
apartheids says that the idea of a common is un.tb.tTfk-
able, impossible, perhaps even disgusting. The liberal says
that apartheid as domination is doomed to die, and apartheid
as total separation is doomed never to be born. It is my
55
HOPE FOE SOUTH AFRICA
experience that the total apartfaider, in whom reason and
emotion struggle incessantly, sees the truth of the liberal
argument, and is driven to a further and new argument,
namelv that so long as we do not know with certainty
whether total apartheid or integration will be the solution,
it is our duty to drive towards total apartheid rather than
integration, because from the first there can be a turning-
back, but never from the second, This is an interesting
and significant argument.
It is my duty to place clearly before the reader the
difficulties in the way of attaining either of these goals. It
is also my duty to explain that there are many South
Africans who, beleving it impossible to reach either goal,
are deeply pessimistic about the future. And it will be my
duty a little later to contend that while total apartheid is
impossible, a democratic society is inevitable, unless demo
cracy dies out in the world. Just how we reach that society,
and whether it will be reached without a bitter price, such as
the ejection of most white persons or the suffering of an
Algerian agony those are the real questions. Whether one
stays to work for that society regardless of the consequences,
or whether one leaves the country fearful of the conse
quences, is to my mind as much a question of character and
temperament as it is of being able to predict the future and
to act upon that prediction.
There is another difficulty in the way of achieving a
democratic and non-racial and liberal solution. One of the
reasons why one supports the liberal solution is because one
sees the danger of group irreconcilability. But the very
growth of this group irreconcilability makes the liberal
solution less likely and more difficult to bring about. My
readers should by this time see quite clearly that the Govern
ment disapproves of inter-racial or non-racial association; it
56
NO EASY FUTURE
has akeady taken certain indire:t steps to make It impossible,
and it has power in certain drcumstances to take direct steps
also, It does not wish however to say boldly, so that the
world can hear, 'There must be no friendship or human
communication between a white and a non-white person* ;*
but it feels able to say, You, a white person, may not enter
that area, because that area is set aside for black persons, so
that they may live self-respecting, self-reliant, self-supporting
lives, without let or hindrance from any person of any other
group or race,* In feet, long before this Government came
to power, no white person could enter a location' without
permission; and a location superintendent would be
incredulous if a white person sought a permit to pay a
friendly call on a black person in a location. In other words,
the increasing amount of enforced racial separation makes it
more and more difficult to create that racial understanding
on which any solution must be based.
Fortunately the road ahead is not completely blocked.
S.AJ3.R.A.,t at its most recent conference at Stellenbosch,
was most outspoken on the subject of consultation between
white and non-white people, and decided to call a con
ference with non-white leaders in the near future. This is
in direct conflict with the policy of Dr. Verwoerd, who told
students at Stellenbosch that they should leave consultation
to himself and his Department, and should not be carried
away by so-called broadminded ideas. It was in fact strongly
rumoured at the S JLB.RJL Conference that Dr. Verwoerd
had resigned from the Bureau, but this fact has never been
confirmed or denied.
*! have no donbt that Dr. Verwoer4 if he had sole power, would have no
hesitation in framing a Jaw wMcfa. would say categoricaBy s no non-white person
<haT1 enoer a wMte person's house except in the capacity of a servant.*
fl remind the reader that S. AJBJELJL, the South African Bureau ofRada! Affairs,
is a noD-political organization sapporzcd largely by Nationalists of the total
belief,
57
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
What is more, there are hopes that S.A.B.R.A. will
really consult leaders', and not the stooges that Dr. Ver-
woerd consults. By leaders I mean people like ex-Chief
Luthuli and Professor Z. K. Matthews, both of whom
were arrested on charges of high treason in December, 1956.
Professor L. J. Duplessis, another S.AJB.R.A. man, bluntly
called Dr. VerwoercTs consultants 'hirelings', and that Is
precisely what they are.
Nevertheless, however cheering this may be, consultation
between S.A.B.R.A. and non-white leaders Is likely to be
more palatable to the Government than consultation between
liberals and non-white leaders, because S.A.B.RJL is
committed to a policy of total apartheid. One therefore can
not exclude the possibility that the law will be applied In
such a way that only that kind of inter-racial association will
be permitted which meets to promote racial separation.
A last question must be faced before we proceed to dis
cuss the task of Liberalism and of the Liberal Party in the
present situation. All of us hope that whatever difficult
times must be endured, South Africa will eventually become
a democracy; and by that we mean a country with parlia
mentary institutions based on universal suffrage, with a
written constitution and a bill of rights, and a distribution
of power and authority, not only in respect of parliament,
cabinet and judiciary, but also in respect of national,
provincial and local bodies.
This goal will almost certainly be reached If democracy
does not retreat throughout the world. But it may be
reached in one of two ways, either as an aftermath of viol
ence and revolution resulting In a black racial domination,
or by an evolutionary process of a massive kind. To put It
bluntly, the choice is not simply revolution or evolution,
it Is revolution or revolutionary evolution. If some readers
5 g
NO EASY FUTURE
do not like that language, one can say the choice is between
revolution and massive evolution. I do not know one liberal
who believes that change mill come about as a result of
steady and quiet evolution. That particular fantasy is
cherished only by those who think the change will or should
take a thousand years (or some comparable time); it is
often called the ostrich-fantasy, and it is held, I believe,
by those whose vested interest depends on stability, and/or
those who hope never to see such change. It is a common
United Party view.
If we are fated to pass through a violent revolutionary
period, it is clear I think that no liberal organization will
survive it, and perhaps no liberal either. That there will be
a task for liberalism in the period of aftermath, I have no
doubt whatsoever, that is, if democracy still lives stoutly in
the world. But that is a matter for the future. I shall concern
myself rather with the task of liberals and a Liberal Party in
a period of massive evolution. I believe in fact that we have
already entered such a period, and it is clearly the duty of
liberaisj not only to themselves, but to every person in
South Africa, to endeavour to ensure, in collaboration with
all like-minded people, that the process is not allowed to
oiter a violent and chaotic phase, during which all liberty
would be lost, with no guarantee as to when it would be
found again.
This is no easy task; it is not unlike being required to guide
safely to its destination a vehicle over whose steering one
has control, but over whose speed one has not.
59
CHAPTER VIII
PARLIAMENTARY AND
EXTRA-PARLIAMENTARY FUNCTIONS
THE Liberal Party in South Africa therefore rejected
the policy of white supremacy, primarily because it
was immoral, but also because it was impossible.
It rejected the policy of total apartheid, primarily because it
was impossible, but also because it was immoral, It rejected
the United Party policy of 'disoitnijiation with justice',
on the grounds, justifiable I believe, that one could get
better discrimination from the Nationalists, and better justice
from the Liberals themselves.* The Party also rejected the
revolutionary solution, partly through temperament, partly
through belief that revolution would destroy the funda
mental freedoms of man.
The Party sees itself as participating in and assisting the
process of evolution, and insists on the possibility of evolu
tionary change, though it does not believe this can be a
process of planned gradualism. Indeed there is one over
whelmingly sound reason for believing that planned
gradualism is impossible, and that is that the Nationalist
Party will, by all ordinary reckoning, never again be
defeated at an election. This opinion is held strongly both
*I realize that the word 'discriiniiiation* may not necessarily mean *diszbzilimtion.
against*. Bat the won! as used by the United Party means *discctinination, against*,
because the Party supports legislation by wbidb. one section of the population
imposes segregation upon the others.
FUNCTIONS IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT
inside and outside the Nationalist Party. The reader already
knows of the rural underloading and the urban overloading,
by which a rural constituency need contain only 85% of the
number of voters obtained by dividing the total number
of voters in the Union by the total number of constituencies;
conversely, an urban constituency may be overloaded up to
115% of this average quota. This favours the Nationalist
Party because the rural districts are overwhelmingly
Afiikaans-speaMng and overwhelmingly Nationalist The
reader should also remember that the white population is
nearly two-thirds Afrikaans-speaking, that the Afrikaner
birthrate Is higher than the English-speaking birthrate, and
that the younger generations of Afrikaners become more
and more Nationalist because of their separate Afrikaans-
medium schools and their separate Afrikaans-medium
universities, many of which, it may be said, have taught
consistently that an Afrikaner cannot be a good one unless
he is a Nationalist. Further, In 1936 General Hertzog re
moved African voters to a separate roll, and In 1956 Mr.
Strijdom removed Coloured voters also, concentrating
potential support for the Opposition in a limited number of
constituencies; and It is not unlikely that the Gist roll will
soon be abolished, and the second will not be long In
following It. Then South-West Africa was granted a wholly
disproportionate representation, and returned a grand slam
of Nationalists to Parliament. The Senate was fantastically
enlarged, and a new method of election introduced, whereby
the Government took 77 of the 89 seats, thus giving Mr.
Strijdom a manufactured two-thirds majority in both
Houses sitting together.
How under these circumstances will the Nationalists ever
be ejected by parliamentary means? The feet is, they have
deliberately set out to make It virtually Impossible. Legally
61
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
and constitutionally, they have made South Africa a one-
part}' state.
The massive nature of Nationalist entrenchments is such
that it has compelled all the elements of the Opposition to
reconsider their strategy. How does one oppose a Govern
ment which has given, to its own supporters every conceiv
able advantage, and which seems unlikely to be unseated
unless some event or series of events should occur which
would compel white South Africa to reconsider its course?
The Liberal Part}*, when confronted by this problem, has
always maintained that even under these difficult circum
stances it has a parliamentary as well as an extra-parlia
mentary duty. The parliamentary duty is to try to put its
policies and principles before the white voters of the country;
to try to persuade white voters that failure to change thek
attitudes can lead only to disaster; to uphold the claims of
justice and to preach both the folly and the wrongness of
race-discrimination; to bring African and Indian and
Coloured and European Liberals onto the election platforms,
giving largely white audiences an opportunity to see
that those values of which they wrongly suppose themselves
to be the sole custodians (and of which they sometimes
wrongly suppose themselves to be custodians at all) to see
that those values, I repeat, are supported by their fellow
South Africans of other races, and to be reassured that a
non-racial democracy is a valid and exciting choice.
The Liberal Party has always attached great importance to
the fact that its membership is open to all. I read not long
since an African's cynical description of 'inter-racial associa
tion' as 'occasionally inviting some cleaner natives to tea'.
For many members of the Party, inter-racial association has
meant entering into a new country, exciting, dangerous and
beautiful. It seems likely to become more dangerous,
62
FUNCTIONS IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT
because there is no doubt that the Minister of Native
Affairs and numberless thousands of his supporters regard
inter-racial association as something unnatural and disgusting,
to be forbidden by law. Political association is the worst of
all, because obviously those who indulge in it are hostile to
apartheid, and white "agitators' corrupt 'decent natives* and
give them ideas which undermine the ideal and separated
society for which the Minister is working. As I have stated
earlier, in this year, 1958, on April n, the Minister forbade
the gathering of more than ten Africans together except
for certain harmless purposes, and he gave as his reason for
so doing the need *to prevent irresponsible elements during
the coming days or weeks from causing labour unrest by
the holding of meetings. It was the wish of the Minister
that as far as his Department was concerned, the notice
should, remain in effect only temporarily, in other words,
for just as long as was necessary in the areas concerned.*
As I write (June 22, 1958) the ban is still in force, and
organizers of Liberal Party or other meetings have either
had to limit the number of Africans attending, or to cancel
the meetings. When questioned as to whether there was
still a danger of labour unrest, the Secretary for Native
Affairs replied to the Party that the Minister had been too
busy to re-examine the position. It is to be expected therefore
that sooner or later mixed meetings may be forbidden
altogether, and this is likely to be done indirectly, so that
critics overseas can be informed by the State Information
Office that this is only an isolated case of inconvenience,
which could be righted only at the expense of setting aside a
law which ensures the happiness of millions of non-white
people, who at last have been given separate areas of peace
and opportunity where they may lead unfettered lives of
bliss, free from all the humiliations and deprivations that they
63
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
suffered when they were forced to live in a mixed society.
We do not expect therefore that the future of inter-racial
association, particularly when it is for political purposes, is
likely to be easy. For one thing s the purely physical barriers
of make it difficult; bat in addition to that, inter
racial association is some would say has already
assumed the form of treason. No less a person than the
Prime Minister has caled opposition to apartheid by this
name, thus making people more and more afraid of being
associated with any deviation.*
Such a choice of what one believes to be just and good
and what others believe to be treason, calls for grave
decisions. But there are liberals, and I hope to be found
amongst them, who, faced by the choice between con
formity on the one hand and the assertion of one's right to
associate with whom one will, no matter what the penalties,
would choose to assert their right. For the Christian liberal
the choice should be simple, being between obedience to
God and obedience to man, but it will not thereby be made
easier. And we must face the position soberly that many
white Christians in South Africa find it easier as time goes
on, and as the Government becomes more powerful, to
believe that apartheid and the great commandments can be
happily reconciled, and that Christ would have approved
apartheid had he been here. They therefore cease to fight or
to protest against injustice, because they dare not admit that
it exists. Furthermore it becomes easier for them to dismiss
supporters of human rights as subversive and communistic,
*I recall a tragic case in the Cape Peninsula, where a man, happily married and
with children, living as a white man, was suddenly declared under die Population
RjegBiratiQU Act to be coloured. The tragic aspect was that the wife, who had
been happily married to him for 20 years, in this time of crisis decided to stick to
her race and not to her husband. An even more tragic* and bitterly ironic, aspect
was that the children also fied from the father, outraged by what he had done to
them. Yet they cannot really flee from him, because they are now coloured too,
64
FUNCTIONS IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT
or if they do not wish to go that far, as unrealistic and
impractical.
Let us return to the topic of the Liberal and parliamentary
action, that is 9 to the whole question of trying to get
representatives into ParEament, where they will oppose
vigorously the policies of the present Government This we
have accepted as part of our duty, but it certainly raises an
important problem. By getting into Parliament one hopes at
least to influence policy, one hopes to influence the progress
of South Africa from a white-dominated state to a non-racial
democracy. One must therefore answer the question, 'You
hope to persuade white South Africa to move from a
situation in which all political power is in white hands,
to a situation where all responsible people exercise political
power. What do you propose as the first move? 5 *
This in fact is the matter of the franchise, the most
difficult question confronting any political party that finds
no solution in apartheid, whether total or of the 'baasskap*
variety.
The Liberal Party, having decided that it had a parlia
mentary duty, had to express itself on the matter of the
franchise, and it had to do so at an early stage of its existence,
when its members were little known to one another, and
when they were bound together more by their opposition
*The United Party lias always evaded this issne by dedaiing that non-white
people are not Interested in franchises but in food and sicker. This is partially true,
but there are two objections to it, the first being that there is an obvious connec
tion in South Africa between political power and standard of living, the second
bong ihat non-white leaders are profoundly interested in the franchise even if
some are afraid (civil servants, for example) to be so openly. Both. United Party
and Nationalist Party reply to tMs second objection that the more courageous
noa-wMte leaders are 'agitators', secondly that they are not representative. All
leaders of the African National Congress are regarded by die Government as
being not representative.
65
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
to injustice than by their common championship of any
political solution. Eventually, in 1953 (very soon after its
founding) the Party decided to put forward, a qualified
franchise, independent of race and colour, but dependent
on education, property, earning power and, failing any of
these, a record of a decent and industrious Hie; the educa
tional qualification was made Standard VI.
This decision was not acceptable to all. There were some
not many who wanted a MgJier educational qualification;
there were some who wanted no qualification at all. These
latter argued that we were not facing any normal situation,
but a veritable parting of the ways; the choice was not of
what kind of man was acceptable as a voter, but of what
kind of man was acceptable as a man. It was not a qualified
vote that the African was asking for, but to be recognized
as a man, once and for all.
Therefore the Party in 1954 declared that universal
suffrage was its goal, but it continued to recognize that it
might be necessary to achieve this by stages during a transi
tional period, dining which there would be qualifications
*that should apply for the minimum period necessary for a
smooth transition to universal adult suffrage 9 .
This policy still frightens many white voters, just as it
fails to satisfy more radical persons (both inside and outside
the Party) because of its qualifying clauses.
Yet in a way this is the inevitable dilemma* of a bridge-
building party in an apartheid country.
*There is no organization without Its dilemma, except die totalitarian one
which allows no choices. The very bringing together of different persons to
pursue similar aims is productive of dilemiEas. One of the dilemmas of the
Nationalists is inmiigranon, which could strengthen the white population, but
would probably also strengthen the United Party. One of the dilemmas of the
United Party is shown in its slogan 'discrimination with, justice'. One of the
dilemmas of tie African National Congress is whether to oppose Nationalism
for the evil it lias done to the African people or whether to espouse a vigorous
rationalism of its own.
66
FUNCTIONS IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT
There are only two other courses open. The first Is to
retreat to a cautious policy of offering franchise concessions
to qualified non-white people, In which case one must
forfeit the trust of their political leaders, and therefore render
one's work of bridge-building altogether futile.
The other course Is to leave white South Africa to Its
own devices, and to Identify oneself solely with non-
white aspirations. Such a course, unmodified by other
considerations, does not appeal to Liberals; It not only does
not appeal to white Liberals, It fails to appeal to non-white
Liberals also. At all costs we intend to proceed on the
assumption that there is a valuable group in the white
population that must not be jettisoned, and we look forward
to a new South Africa where all groups of the population
will be represented without discrimination or privilege In
the activities and councils of the nation.
There are good grounds for supposing that non-white
South Africans will never again accept a qualified franchise,
and that they will accept only a universal franchise (perhaps
with or perhaps without any stages), and a written con
stitution embodying a bill of rights and subject to amend
ment only under the most exacting circumstances. These
reasons I give now, and they are also excellent reasons why
a white Liberal should feel It repugnant to put forward a
qualified franchise. The reasons are that this country has
had a qualified franchise for over a hundred years, and that
in respect of Africans and Coloured people the restrictions
and qualifications have been progressively Increased to the
point where no one would be surprised to see the franchise
abolished altogether; while concurrently the franchise
67
HOPE FOS SOUTH AFRICA
for Europeans has become less and less qualified; until we
expect (on authority) to hear of the enfranchisement of
18-year-olds at any moment.*
The Cape Colony was given representative government
in 1853, but by 1887 Rhodes had made it impossible for
Africans who held land in communal tenure (i.e. tribal
Africans, often called contemptuously 'blanket kaffirs*)
to exercise the vote. In 1892 he raised the property qualifica
tion, and imposed an education test, both of which steps
had the approval of the first J. EL Hofineyr. In 1909 W. P.
Schreiner went to England to protest against the unsatisfac
tory way in which the non-white franchise was to be en
trenched in the new Act of Union, for he declared the two-
thirds majority required for any change to be no safeguard
at all. His fears were justified, for in 1936, as I have already
pointed out, General Hertzog secured the two-thirds
majority and removed all African voters to a separate roll,
with the right to elect three white MJP.s and four white
Senators, In 1955 Mr. Strijdona manufactured a two-thirds
majority by enlarging the Senate on undemocratic and
unprecedented lines and removed the Coloured voters to a
separate rol. And already from high quarters has come the
warning that perhaps the Government will soon abolish
African representation in Parliament altogether.
How can one again in 1958 propose a franchise of a kind
which was introduced in 1853, and withered altogether
away? It is impossible.
The fear that motivates this whittling away of rights
is of course understandable. It is the fear that generosity
or statesmanship of any kind leads sooner or later to
'swamping*. It is said of course that the fear is really other
wise; and is rather the fear of imperilling the civilized
*Tbh has now been done.
68
FUNCTIONS IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT
standards of one's society; but it goes deeper than that
it is the fear of being 'swamped* by a black majority, who,
however civilized, will seek revenge for past wrongs.
Will a black majority seek revenge for past wrongs?
Alternatively, will it adopt repressive policies towards
white citizens? One can reply to this question with one
reassiirance 9 that at least a black majority 7 will not have the
motive that has been behind all the repressive legislation of
the Nationalists, namely, the fear of being fi swamped*.
A true liberal does not in fact think in terms of groups,
he thinks in terms of persons. Is this unpractical, idealistic,
sentimental, unrealistic? The Liberal thinks it is the only
way to think if one is working for a non-racial democracy,
Is this the way to get votes? At Sea Point, Mr. Gerald
Gordon presented the case for the goal of a universal fran
chise, and gained the support of 17% of those who voted.
In other words, 17% of those white people who voted in
Sea Point were willing to consider living in a society where
neither privilege nor power will depend on the colour of
one's skin.
Will Mr. Gerald Gordon, or any other Liberal, ever win
Sea Point? That we do not know. But we think it is impor
tant, no matter what the future may be, to rally those white
South African forces that are willing to pky their part in a
new democratic society, whose duties and privileges are
open to all.
One last question. Is it really practical or sensible to put
before a white electorate such an extreme goal as that of the
69
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
universal franchise, even with qualifications? Should one
not be putting before them a safer and more gradual
programme, so that one would have a better chance of
winning a seat, and influencing the councils of Parliament?
In some other society, no doubt, it is the right thing to
lead the electorate away from a dangerous course by gentle
and gradual means. South Africa is not a normal society,
and there is no time for gentle and gradual means. The
choice, as I indicated before, is not between revolution and
gradualism, but between revolution and a massive evolu
tion.
Will we win? We do not knew, but even if we do not, we
consider that the organizing of liberal opinion now, both
white and non-white,, must affect the end result. Therefore
we will continue as long as we are able to perform a
parliamentary duty. Meanwhile let us proceed to consider
those duties which are called extra-parliamentary, a word, I
may add, which has for many white South Africans an
unjustifiably terrifying sound.
I shall close this chapter with a brief observation. The
Nationalist Government of South Africa has made it virtually
impossible for any opposition to unseat it by parliamentary
means. But while it has done this, it pretends it has not, and
takes a stem view of any of its opponents who suggest
that under the circumstances one is compelled to examine
extra-parliamentary means. In other words, having made
the parliamentary game unwinnable for its opponents, it
insists that they should go on playing it.
That is why so many white opponents of the Government
who think of politics as purely a white man's game have
given up all hope; and having given up all hope, they are in
danger of supporting, through sheer hopelessness, the very
Government which took their hope away.
70
FUNCTIONS IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT
No white Sooth African can ever hope to oppose the
Nationalist Government successfully if he upon poli
tics as only a white man's game, because no one will ever be
able to play that game better than the Nationalists can play it.
CHAPTER IX
THE ROLE OF LIBERAL PARTY
IT stands to reason that much political activity in South
Africa cannot be parliamentary at all. Seeing that nearly
80% of the people have no ordinary franchise, and
seeing that the Government threatens to abolish, in whole or
in part, what franchise they have, it is not surprising that
most of their political activity should be extra-parliamentary.
It is parties such as the United Party, and pre-eminently the
Nationalist Party, who want politics to be parliamentary,
and who tend to regard as subversive any person or organiza
tion that talks of an extra-parliamentary duty. What is more,
they are able to pull the wool over the eyes of white people
elsewhere, who wonder at the absence of non-white persons
in Parliament, by persuading them that the colour bar is
not an offensive institution, but a veritable bulwark of
civilization and democracy.
Now Afrikaner Nationalism is not in the all-powerful
position that it appears to be from the parliamentary view
point It commands the support of only half of the 3,000,000
white people of the country, and beyond that secures the
unwilling compliance of 11,000,000 non-white people, some
of whom have no great political knowledge, but know
very wel what it means to be pushed around, sometimes
politely, sometimes with the extreme of cruelty. Of the
2,500,000,000 people of the outside world, only in places
72
THE SOLE OF THE LIBERAL PARTY
such as Kenya, Mississippi Algeria, would any support for
apartheid be found.
Afrikaner Nationalism Is well aware of the insecurity of
Its tenure. Even now, at the very height of Its power,
Minister Jan de Klerk, speaking at Brits on June 21, 1958,
said, *We must fight until the bitter and support Mr.
Strijdom, just as an Aaron and Her of old held the arms of
Moses aloft.' Mr. de Klerk, proud to be known as 'Blood
River' de Klerk, Is continually reminding Afrikaners that
they dare not relax.
This theme Is only too wel known. Afrikaner National
ism must have Its enemies even while It fears them. It must
never feel safe, because then It will cease to be vigilant.
This has led some of Its opponents to argue that Afrikaner
Nationalism must never be too strongly opposed, for then
it will turn and rend Its enemies still more fiercely. This
argument can be heard in many opposition circles, and
even In overseas countries; and It has a variation to the
efiect that the more security Afrikaner Nationalism achieves,
the more urbane and tolerant It will become.
This I think Is false. Afrikaner Nationalism will never
be secure. Its great strength springs solely from its in
security. But its Insecurity Is not thereby lessened, because
Its great strength can never be great enough. I am one of
those who believes that Afrikaner Nationalism* not for want
of courage but for lack of this ultimate strength* would not
stand up to any real and sustained challenge to Its baasskap.
It would, as the British had to do In India, have to adapt
Itself to new orcumstances. Afrikaner Nationalism must
therefore be resolutely opposed.
Liberals would however never wish to destroy the
Afrikaner people, nor to Interfere with their language,
nor to prevent the observance of custom and tradition which
73
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
did not involve the pushing of other people around.
Afrikaner Nationalism has a hard lesson to learn; it must
survive, as it did in the past, because of its inner strength,
not because of its protective laws. In the new society we
envisage every Afrikaner will be given the same protection
of fundamental human rights as is enjoyed by any other
citizen.
Liberalism is not opposed, as some people suppose, to the
*own~sort-ness* of nationalism, but it is utterly opposed to
the enforcement of 'own-sort-ness' by the State, which goes
even to the extent of deciding what the 'own-sort-ness' of
any person should be, and which prevents a parent from
having his child educated in the language of his choice.
Liberalism is opposed to Afrikaner Nationalism, not
because it seeks to ensure Afrikaner survival, but because it
seeks to do so at the expense of other groups. Liberalism
would be utterly false to its ideals if it did not oppose
Afrikaner Nationalism as embodied in the Nationalist
Government.
There is today in South Africa a great reluctance on the
part of opposition groups to say or do anything which will
hurt Afrikaner susceptibilities. This is partly because decent
people are always care&l of racial generalizations, partly
because the Afrikaner Nationalist Government is so
powerful. Bet it is the Afrikaner Nationalist who insists
that he and his Government are one, and there is no point
in evading the issue. Afrikaner Nationalists and their
Government are responsible for apartheid legislation, some
of which is evil and cruel. Therefore they must be opposed
by all lovers of freedom, and, seeing that they have en
trenched themselves parliamentary, they must be opposed
in other ways.
74
THE ROLE OF THE LIBERAL PARTY
The role of the Liberal Party (and of other liberals where
the role is not party political) is to strengthen at every point
the opposition to Nationalism. This does not mean the
formation of a unitary common front, but it does mean a
common front in so far as opposition to race discriminatioii
is concerned. What real opposition can there be to Afrikaner
Nationalism unless it be the opposition of defenders of
democracy of whatever race or colour? It is here that the
United Party can never ofier a real opposition to National
ism, in that it cannot conceive of a co-defence of democratic
values and of liberty made by white and non-white together.
That was the weakness of the Torch Commando, which,
though fighting for the rights of coloured men, would not
allow coloured men to join the Commando. These para
doxes are understandable; they are the mark of white South
Africa, which shrinks from the idea of making common
cause with any non-white person against a fellow white
South African. It is a mixture of 'don't quarrel in front of
the children* and 'don't quarrel in the face of the enemy 9 .*
In spite of these adverse factors, the cause of multi-racial
or non-racial democracy has been advanced, and has
assumed a firmer character in recent years. Such co-operation
has always existed, but some people today are inclined to
sneer at the liberalism of earlier times, just as some American
Negroes are inclined to sneer at Booker Washington. One
of the pioneers in the modem field was the white Congress
of Democrats, which was founded in 1952 and which
*It is one of the great fears of many white defenders of non-white lights that they
might be compdObd, in case of civil confiagratiaii, to defend themselves against
those whom they have always championed.
75
HOPE FOS SOUTH AFRICA
established firm links with the African National Congress,
the South African Indian Congress and the Coloured Peoples
Organization; these formed the 'Congress Movement', and
It was this movement that was responsible for the holding
of the Congress of the People in 1955. This Congress pro
duced the Freedom Charter, a document of human rights of
a truly democratic character, with the debatable exception
of a few passages advocating the nationalization of land,
banks and certain industries, which seemed to necessitate
a measure of central control not acceptable to liberals.
The holding of the Congress of the People was a courageous
action, and was in part responsible for the arrest of many of
the leading participants on grounds of high treason; 156
persons were arrested, over sixty were released after the
preparatory examination, and over ninety face the trial itself,
which began in August, 1958.
The Liberal Party itself, though invited at a later stage
in the arrangements, declined to attend the Congress of the
People; but it was angered by the arrests, and its National
Chairman at that time myself-joined such non-party
personalities as the Bishop of Johannesburg, Judge Lucas
and Dr. Ellen Hellman in sponsoring a Defence Fund for
the assistance of those arrested.
I think it is necessary for a clear understanding of the
relationship between the Liberal Party and the Congress
of Democrats to say something about these two bodies,
co-operation between whom is an important factor in the
fight against apartheid. It is necessary to understand that they
pursue separate and independent courses, and that the
Liberal Party was founded when the Congress of Demo
crats was already in existence, which seems to show that
each represents different temperaments and social theories.
It is not my intention however to take any partisan stand;
76
THE ROLE OF THE LIBESAi PARTY
I wish not so much to compare the two bodies as to make
clear their relationship, because many observers overseas
find It disconcerting that there should be two separate
organizations to represent what appears to them to be
essentially the same view.
I think It is a fair observation that the nature of the
liberal attitude itself is one of the mam causes of difference.
The Congress is more disciplined, and the Party less so; the
Congress has a more clearly defined opinion and devotes less
time to discussion and argument; the Congress prefers the
strength of unity to the riches of diversity. This difference
is reflected in social theory also, for the Congress attaches
importance to an efficient state machinery, while the Party
attaches importance to the freedom of individual persons.
Some members of the Congress would regard the Party's
devotion to freedom as cautious and conservative, while
some members of the Party would regard the Congress's
espousal of human rights as only a part of a larger strategy.
That both organizations are haters of race discrimination
there can be no doubt; but one of them would root out
race discrimination by a radical reconstruction of society,
and the other by the distribution of power and the entrench
ment of rights. These differences seem to cause, or to be
caused by, or at least to accord with, certain differences of
temperament that make close co-operation not always easy
to maintain. But it is clear to me that if this co-operation
is not maintained, the common cause* genuinely cherished
by both, will suffer. I might add one more observation, and
that is that the African and Indian Congresses have been
able to bring the Congress of Democrats and the Liberal
Party into a closer relationship more easily than they could
have done it themselves, and I ascribe this to the fact that the
African and Indian Congresses contain a wider cross-section
77
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
of views, and are more used to the reconciling of diverse
elements for the sake of a common goal.
Nor must one exclude the fact that the Liberal Party
arrived later in the field than the Congress of Democrats,
and this in itself caused some difficulty; why did the ally
arrive late at the battle, and why did he bring another
banner when he came?
However the question was is co-operation between
Liberals and Congressmen possible for the one purpose of
fighting race discrimination? Progress towards such co
operation was hastened by the holding of a conference of
prominent Africans in Bloemfontein in October 1956,
under the auspices of the Interdenominational African
Ministers Federation (IJD.A.M.F.) for the purpose of dis
cussing the Tomlinson Report. This notable conference
produced some notable documents, from which I make the
following quotations.
'This conference does not subscribe to the view that the
choice before South Africa consists only of two altern
atives ''ultimate complete integration" or "ultimate
complete separation between European and Bantu"
[quotations from the Tomlinson Report]. The Conference
maintains that a proper reading of the South African
situation calls for co-operation and interdependence be
tween the various races comprising the South African
nation and denies that this arrangement would constitute
a threat to the survival of the white man in South Africa/
And further,
*This conference is convinced that the present policy
of apartheid constitutes a threat to race relations in the
country. Therefore, in the interests of all the people and
the future of the country, this conference calls upon all
national organizations to mobilize all people, irrespective
78
THE ROIE OF THE LIBERAL PARTY
of race, colour or creed, to form a united front against
apartheid. 9
As a first step towards tie establishment of suet a 'united
front*, the Conference suggested the holding of a further
conference, embracing all races, as soon as possible.
From that time onward the Liberal Party, as well as Con
gressmen and non-Congressmen, the Labour Party, non-
party liberals and prominent churchmen worked for a
multi-racial conference, which was held in Johannesburg in
December 1957. The emphasis of the Conference through
out was on the multi-racial character of our country, the
injustice and futility of apartheid, the importance of the
written constitution and the Bill of Rights, and the franchise
open to all. The conference was watched throughout by the
Security Branch of the Police, although the Committee
would not allow them to enter the hall. The proceedings
throughout were characterized by dignity and determina
tion, and differences, whether of temperament or politics,
were constructively discussed.
It is part and parcel of the policy of the Liberal Party to
give its full support to the Multi-racial Conference and to all
that it stands for. It seems to the Party to be abundantly clear
that a non-racial society is the only one that offers hope for
the future, with a constitution guaranteeing basic human
rights. It, therefore, wil work for the maintenance of the
Multi-racial Conference, and its support of the Congress
movement will be expressed in that way, or in any other
way that ensures support for the same ideals.
It will be the polcy of the Party to give all possible
79
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
support to the African National Congress (A.N.C.), which
has pledged Its support to a democratic non-racial society.
At this point it seems fitting and here I shall avoid any
improper discussion of the intimate affairs of a friendly
organization to consider briefly the dilemmas which are
characteristic of such a body as the A.N.C.
The A.N.C. is a non-party organization, and therefore
contains in its ranks at least three sections of opinion. One
believes that only the radical transformation of society can
achieve any useful purpose; another believes in the extension
of the rights and duties of democracy to every adult person
and entrenchment of those rights; while a third section is
tempted to oppose Afrikaner Nationalism by African
nationalism, with a policy of 6 Africa for the Africans' which
might be interpreted as meaning 'Africa for those who lived
in Africa before the Europeans and Asians came'. A Liberal
could endorse only the second of these policies if a choice
had to be made, and it therefore will be the duty of the
Party, not to try to disrupt the Congress, but to give its full
support to those who stand for the extension of democratic
rights. That indeed is what it already does.
The Party would find it difficult to support the United
Party, or even the Federal Party, except on particular issues.
The fact that both these parties have a colour bar, ideological
or merely 'realistic', makes close co-operation difficult. In
any event, the United Party would find support from the
Liberal Party embarrassing, especially if it persists in its
mistaken view that it can win more support in the rural
constituencies; for any association with the Liberal Party
would be a severe handicap. Closer association with the
Federal Party is only less difficult; the Federal Party is largely
an anti-republican body, which believes that only deter
mined opposition from the English-speaking people of
80
THE ROLE OF THE LIBERAL PARTY
Natal can prevent a republic. In conversations with the
Liberals, the Federal Party maintains that one should fight
the republic fast, that if necessary one should ensure the
secession of Natal jirst; only thereafter. It argues, would It
be sensible to talk of the extension of democratic rights to
non-white peoples.
The Liberal Party Is enable to accept this argument, even
although It can be most persuasively put forward, It argues
that the Federals, If they ultimately mean to make the
seceded state of Natal a non-racial state, must say so now.
It argues that the Federals are Inspired largely by a mil-
racial pro-British, pro-Commonwealth, pro-Crown senti
ment, and that this Is no adeqoate foundation for an African
state. Furthermore the Liberal Party stands unequivocally
for the rights of Indians to be treated as full citizens, and it is
aware that the pro-British backers of the Federal Party In
Natal have never championed the rights of Indians. There
fore it sees no reason to believe that a seceded Natal would
be any more liberal than, for example, the City Council of
the great city of Durban, which lent its full support to the
evil Group Areas Act, which, seeks, if not the destruction,
then at least the segregation and Impoverishment of the
Indian community.
The Liberal Party attitude to the republic is unequivocal.
It 'holds that a republc shall not come Into being unless It
Is the express desire of a majority of all adult persons,
regardless of race and colour, voting together In a referen
dum*. It "is opposed to all authoritarian forms of govern
ment, particularly the republican government as envisaged
by the 1942 draft constitution* put forward by the Nation
alist Party. Furthermore the attitude of the Liberal Party
towards the Commonwealth is also unequivocal. It mam-
tains that It is In the interests of South Africa as a sovereign
81
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
ndependent state to maintain and safeguard Its ties with the
Commonwealth'.
Therefore the attitude of the Liberal Party towards the
Federal Party is plain. It supports the Federal Party in its
opposition to the republic, not because It opposes the
establishment of a republic as such, but because it opposes
the establishment of the race-discriminatory republic that
the Nationalist Party wants. Its attitude to the United Party
is also plain; it hopes to attract to its own ranks the more
liberal members of that party. Should the United Party
Itself be drawn nearer to the Nationalists, and should it lend
more and more support to the policies of apartheid, and should
Its liberal members as a consequence resign or be thrown
out, then It earnestly hopes that these liberal members
would see the folly of establishing yet another party between
the United Party and the Liberals, with the Inevitable but
absurd policy of 'discrimination with still more justice*.
The relations of the Liberal Party to the Indian Congress
have grown closer and closer, largely as a result of the total
opposition of the Party to the Group Areas Act, and the
wholehearted acceptance of the Indian community as South
Africans In the follest sense. I do not suggest that the
opposition of the Congress of Democrats is any less whole
hearted; on the contrary the plight of the Indian community
has proved to be the strongest binding element uniting the
Party with the Congress of Democrats.
The defeat of Mr. Alex Hepple and Mr. Leo Lovell, the
Labour candidates in the 1958 elections, was a great blow to
the Liberal cause. We wish there could be a closer relation
ship, even a coalescence, between Liberals and Labour. We
82
THE ROLE OF THE LIBERAL PARTY
believe they could educate us in economic affairs, just as we
believe humbly I hope that we have something to offer
by virtue of our total rejection of racial discrimination. Our
respect for the Labour Party members of Parliament was
unbounded, but it seems that they look for a more 'realistic'
realignment. They should look for it on the basis of total
rejection of the colour bar, and they should join us, and add
to our strength their magnificent gifts.
Our relations with the South African Coloured People's
Organization (S.A.C.P.O.) are sketchy, and are largely the
responsibility of our Cape Division. So far we have neither
won much Coloured support for Liberalism, which is not
surprising in view of the wasting away of the coloured
franchise, nor have we established firm relations with
S.A.C.P.O. This remains one of the great challenges to the
Party.
There is one other organization that should be mentioned,
and that is the Non-European Unity Movement (N.E.U.M.) ,
a largely Coloured organization, which, under the impact of
countless rebuffs and rejections, rejects in its turn any co
operation with organizations with which white people have
anything to do, and whose members try to maintain what is
almost impossible in South Africa, namely the abstention
from almost every human activity, except one in which
they can fully participate. It is a boycott organization on
the grand scale, and certainly does not reject suffering as an
integral element in such boycotting. But such suffering is
not remedial, and does great damage to personality, espec
ially when the suffering, though not rejected, is resented.
Here again we touch on the profound problem of the
relationship of politics to temperament and experience. The
opposition of the N.E.U.M. extends to the Congresses also,
and they have angrily obstructed the Indian Congress
83
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
campaign against the Group Areas Act, because the Con
gress collaborated with the Liberal Party. How I wish that
the NJE.U.M. could overcome this bitter isolationism, and
could overcome their prejudice against the white skins of
the arrogant f herrenvolk y , and co-operate with other anti-
Nationalist forces!
CHAPTER X
CONCLUSION
IF one thing should have emerged from this essay it is
this. There is nothing stable about the South African
political situation. It has its moments of apparent calm
but, underneath, rages a torrent, driven this way and that
by a host of conflicting currents and pressures. The sources
of the torrent and its diverse currents He far back in the
history of South Africa's people. And, as I have stressed,
without some knowledge of this past there can be no under
standing South Africa's present and no planning for its future.
What is that future to be? Nobody can tell. For anyone
of a liberal persuasion, that future can only be worthwhile
if it produces a society in which men can live freely, secure
in the knowledge that all those rights which touch most
closely upon their everyday lives are safeguarded.
How will Liberals try to guide South Africa's footsteps
towards this desirable future?
They will have to confront the intellectual total apartheid
Afrikaners, some of whom are quite honest in their self-
deception, with the total impracticability of their pipe-
dream. They will have to confront them with the endless
cruelties which the preparations for the apartheid state already
inflict on African, Indian and Coloured people.
They will have to persuade white opponents of the
85
HOPE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
Nationalist regime that they have no hope whatsoever of
defeating this Government merely by opposing it every
five years at elections whose results are foregone conclusions.
The Nationalists can only be beaten by a large and well-
organized non-racial opposition. It is in such an opposition
that all anti-Nationalists should be found, however difficult
some of them may find it to take the first, far-reaching step.
White South Africans must continually be reminded of
the fact that they can expect no privileged position for their
children in the future. Their great fear is that the wheel will
torn full circle and that black privilege will replace white.
Somehow they must be wakened to the fact that their
present intransigence is the most likely cause of what they
fear most. Somehow they must be made to realize that they
have much more to gain than they can possibly lose by
getting rid of the colour bar once and for all. It is Liberals
who must bring them to their senses.
The Liberal Party will have to persuade South Africa
black and white that a non-racial democracy is a practical
proposition and that it can work. It can best hope to do so if
it can produce, within the body of its own organization,
a forerunner of that society it strives for. And it can only do
that convincingly by building up its own membership and
organization and by spreading the range of its influence so
widely that no South African can afford to ignore its existence
and the pressure of its presence. It will have to do this in the
face of a Government whose policy it is to make inter-racial
contact more and more difficult and which would like to make
inter-racial politicalcontactinipossible.Itisatough assignment
and no Liberal underestimates the threatening challenge of
Dr. Verwoerd. To him inter-racial association is anathema.
To the Liberal it is the very lifeblood of the society which
he knows must be evolved in South Africa if conflict is to
86
CONCLUSION
be avoided. All that he hopes Is that he will be ready to
meet this challenge when it comes. Because, if he is not,
the chance to draw potential African Nationalists from the
dark and gloomy passages of race exclusiveness into the
wider, brighter corridors of multi-racialism, may be lost.
The hope for massive evolutionary change in South Africa
will have been thrown away and only revolution will
remain.
I have said that South African Liberals do not under
estimate the challenges which face them. I have suggested
that, on their ability to meet them, may depend the survival
in South Africa, and perhaps even in sub-Saharan Africa,
of those fundamental values which are sometimes called
'Christian*. But the challenge is not only to South African
Liberals and to South African Christians. The challenge
faces everyone outside South Africa who cherishes those same
values. Every possible support must be given to those in
South Africa -who today strive to find a way towards a
society in which baasskap and privilege and senseless dis
crimination will be skeletons of the past. South Africa's
strategic position and her vast resources of vital raw
materials shrink into insignificance beside the question of how
she solves her racial problems. The people of the outside
world will be judged, in the eyes of South African leaders of
the future, on how they measure up to this challenge in
the next few years. Let the West take note.
To sum up, therefore, we see the role of the Liberal
Party as a supporter of the multi-racial and non-racial front,
particularly the Multi-Racial Conference, as a collaborator
87
KOBE FOR SOUTH AFRICA
of the Congress movement in all opposition to racial dis
crimination, as a supporter of all those who believe in a
non-racial democracy, as an exposer of the total-apartheid
myth, as a home for United Party liberals who have been
rejected, as a believer in spite of the omens in the possi
bility of evolutionary change, as an opponent of all forms of
exclusive nationalism, as an upholder of constitutional
government and the rule of law, and above all as a defender
of man against totalitarian authority, indeed as a defender of
those inalienable human rights which are the concern of
liberals in every country of the world.
88
IMPORTANT BACKGROUND
INFORMATION
i. Estimated Population 1958 African 9 2/3 million
European 3
Coloured 11/3
Indian 2/5
Total 14 2/5 million
2. Prime Ministers of the Union of South Africa
1910-1919 General Louis Botha: leader of the South
African Party, standing largely for reconcilia
tion between Briton and Afrikaner.
1919-1924 General Smuts: on the death of Botha made
leader of the South African Party, which now,
menaced by the growth of General Hertzog's
Nationalist Party, absorbed the largely English-
speaking Unionist Party.
1924 General Hertzog: leader of the Nationalist
Party, came to power with the aid of the
largely English-speaking Labour Party.
1933 General Hertzog joined forces with General
Smuts and became leader of the new United
Party. Dr. Malan led the break-away National
ist Party.
89
IMPORTANT BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1939 General Smuts defeated General Hertzog on a
motion calling for active intervention by
South. Africa in the Second World War, and
became the new Prime Minister and leader of
the United Party, General Hertzog died soon
after.
1948 Dr. Malan and his Nationalist Party came to
power.
1952 Mr. Strijdom became Prime Minister and new
leader of the Nationalist Party on Dr. Malan's
retirement,
1958 Mr. Strijdom died on August 24, and was
succeeded by his most extreme supporter,
Dr. F, H. Verwoerd. The change in premier
ship does not disturb, but gives added force
to the closing arguments of the book.
INDEX
AFRICANS, i, 28, 29, 85; church ser
vices ban, 48, franchise, 67; Hfe in
Reserves, 32; Parliamentary repre
sentation, 68
African National Congress, 42, 43, 44,
65*3, 76, 77, 80; election strike, 49-50
Afrikaners, 14, 26, 29, 33, 40, 52; and
anglicization, 24; and Bantu, 16;
enmity to Bantu and Britain^ 21;
relations with British, 35, 37, 38,
39; and Nationalist Party, 61
Afrikaner nationalism, 3, 28, 37-8, 39,
51, 52, 61, 72-5, 80
Algoa Bay, n
American Imperialism, 21
Apartheid, 2, 20, 27, 40, 41, 42, 43,
47, 49, 50, 52, 53-4, 5, 63, 64, 65,
66, 76, 78, 79, 82, 85; support of
outside world, 723
Appellate Court, 43, 46
BACAS, 31
Bantu, 21 ; Authorities Act, 42; Educa
tion Act, 23, 45; Urban Authorities
Act, 43
Bezuidenhout, Frederick, 24
Bill of Rights, 79
Black Circuit, 22
'Black Sash*, 46
Bloemibntein, 43 ; Convention, 30, 33;
Conference, 78
Blood River, Battle o 28, 29, 30
Boers, 14, 31; angEdTing, 36; and
British Government, 20, 25; and
British, 32; GraafF Reinet, 17, 20;
SweHendam, 17, 20; war on Great
Britain, 35; Xosas, 16
Botha, General Louis, 36, 37, 38, 39
British Bechuanaland, 34
Bushmen, 12, 16
- CAMBBELI-BANNERMAN, Sir Henry
36
Cape of Good Hope, The, n, 12,
13, 17, 20, 21 ; equality of men,
22; franchise, 37, 68; population,
13
Cape Town, 13, 15, 16, 43, 48
Century of Wrong, 20, 24, 35, 37
Colonists, 24; Grahamstown and Port
Elizabeth founded, 24
Coloured Community, attitude to
Liberalism, 83-4; to whites, 49;
franchise, 67; organization, 76;
political representation, i, 2; separa
tion from whites, 13 ; voting, 43, 44,
48, 61, 68
Communism, 21
Congress of the People, 46, 76
Criminal Law Amendment Act, 44
DAT OF THE COVENANT, 28, 2
Democrats, Congress o 43, 75, 76-9
88
Departure from the Union Regulation
_Act,4<5
Diaz, Bartholomew, n
Dingaan, King of the Zulus, 28, 31
Discrimination with Justice, 4
Donges, Dr., 41
Drake, Sir Francis, n
Duncan, Patrick, 43
Duplessis, L. J., Professor, 58
Durban, 41, 50, 81
D'Urban, Sir Benjamin, 25
Dutch East India Company, n, 14, 15,
17; methods, 12-13
Dutch Reformed Church of South
Afnca, 9, 39, 48; and Bantu Edu
cation Act, 45; missionary work,
23
INDEX
EDUCATION, Adams College, 23, 47;
Aftikaans-medium schools, 39, 61;
animus against missionaries, 23, 45;
banning of private schools, 45;
Christian Education Movement, 42;
Methodist Kilncrton College, 23;
Minister of, 41, -P. 45 " racial separa
tion in universities, 47-8, 61; St.
Peter's College, 23
Electorate, 52-3, 70; African voters,
<5x, 68 ; ban on non-white JVLP.s, 37;
Coloured representation, 2; Col
oured voters, 61, 6S; elections and
stay-at-home strike, 48, 49-50; un
derloading and overloading, 37, 39,
6 1 ; white South African opinion, 3
Holland, 9, 12, 16, 17; and language,
14
Hottentots, 12, 13, 14, id, 22, 23, 24
25; Eva's marriage to white, 13, 23
Huguenots, 13
IMMORALITY ACT, 41
Indians, 40, 41, 81; group areas, 50;
poBtically unrepresented, 1-2; trade,
6
Indian Congress, 42, 43, 46, 76, 77,
82, 83
Industrial Conciliation Act, 44
Interdenominational African Minister's
Federation, 78-9
FEBEBAL PARTY, 44, 80-1, 82
50th Ordinance, 25
First World War, 38
Fischer, Abraham, 36
Fish River, 16, 25
Fitzherbert, Captain, II
Fort Hare University Transfer Bil, 47
Politic, Jople, 38
Free Church of Scotland, 9
Freedom Charter, 46, 47
GAMA, Yasco da, n
Ghana, 22
Gordon, Gerald, 4, 69
Great Britain: Boer War policy, 35;
occupation of Cape, 21, 22; and a
common society, 52; end of im
perialism, 21, 36; in India, 73;
missionaries, 22, 23 ; negropHles, 21 ;
Sixth Kaffir War policy, 25
Great Trek, 9, 15, 26, 27, 32
Group Areas Development Act, 41,
46, 48, Sz, 84; in Durban, 50; Bill,
41
HELIMAN, Dr. Men, 76
Hepple, Alex, M.P., 4* 82
Herodotus, 10
Hertzog, General, I, 36, 38, 39, 61, 68
High Court of Parliament Act, 43
Hofineyr, J. H., 39, 40, 52
Hofineyr, J. H. (senr.), 68
JAMES I, of England, n
Jameson Raid, 34
Jansen, Dr., 42
Johannesburg, 34, 41, 45; City Council,
45
Johannesburg, Bishop o 76
John, King of Portugal, n
KALAHARI, 12
Karroo, 14, 15
Keet, Professor B. B., 3, 54
Kei River, 25
King, Dick, 31
Klerk, Jan de, 49, 73
Kniger, Paul, 26, 33, 34, 35; changed
voting qualifications, 34
PASTY, 4, 5, 38, 49, 79
liberalism, 58; *anti* feeling of whites,
7; hope for, 5; meaning of word, 6;
and nationalism, 46, 75 5 and religion,
8
liberal Party, and apartheid, 54, 55-6,
60; attitude to Afrikaner, 73-5;
support for African National Con
gress, 80; and Commonwealth, 81;
Congress of Democrats, 76, 77, 78,
79; Congress of the People, 76;
Federal Party, 80-1 ; franchise, 65-6,
69-70; freely attended meetings, 50,
63 ; fundamental freedoms, 7, 58 j
General Election and strike, 49, 50;
INDEX
human rights, 64; Indian Congress,
84; Indians' rights, 82; inter-racial
association, 58, 62, 64; Multi-racial
Conference, 79, 87; no discrimina
tion, 67, 87; *own-sortness', 8, 74;
parliamentary duty, 59, 62, 65;
policy for South Africa's future, 85,
87-8; the Republic, 82; relation
with South African Coloured
People's Organization, 83; United
Party, 80; white supremacy, 60
Lovell, Leo, M.P., 4, 82
Lucas, Judge, 76
Lutholi, Griqua, ex-Chief, 44, 58
MC CRONE, Professor, 53?*
Majuba, Battle of, 33
Maian, Dr., i, 39, 40, 41, 42, 44, 46
Matthews, Professor Z. K., 58
Maynier, Landdrost, 17
Meerhof, van, 13, 23
Milner, Lord, 15, 35, 36
Mixed Marriages Act, 41
Multi-racial Conference, 79, 87
Multi-racial Church Conference, 45
PLETTENBERG, van, Governor, 16, 17
Pondos, 31
Population Registration Act, 41, 46;
marriage break-up, 64?!
Pretorius, Andries, 28
Public Safety Act, 43
QUEEN ADELAIDE, Province of, 25
RAND, 42
Religion, 8, 15, 16; Anglican Church,
21, 48; Bantu Education Act, 45;
Catholics and schools, 47; Christians
and apartheid, 64; Dutch Reformed
Church, 9, 45, 48; missionary ac
tivity, 22, 23; Multi-racial Church
Conference, 45; no equality, 40
Reserves, 2, 31, 32
Resistance Movement, 43, 44
Relief, Pieter, 26, 27, 28
Rhodes, Cecil, 15, 34, 35, 68
Rhodesia, 34, 35, 53
Riebeeck, van, 13
Rondebosch, 12
NATAL, ii, 28, 31, 81; Government,
2; Provincial Council, 45; Univer
sity, 8n; Nationalist Party, i, 38, 39,
49, 44, 49, 60, 6l, 66n, 72, 81, 82;
African nationalism, 49, 80, 87; and
franchise, 65*1, 68, 72; government,
32, 38, 42, 61-2, 69, 70-1, 85
Native Administration Act, 50
Native Affairs, Minister of, 42, 48, 50,
63
Native Laws Amendment Act, 48
Natives (Prohibition of Interdicts) Act,
47
Necho of Egypt, 10
Nehru, Pandit, 21
Niekerk, van, 32
Non-European Unity Movement, 83-4
Nursing Act, 48
Nyasaland, 28
ORANGE FREE STATE, 2, 31, 33;
British colony, 35; self-government,
3<5
SAIDANHA, Antonio de, n
Sand River Convention, 30, 33
Schreiner, Mr. Justice, 46
Schreiner, W. P., 68
Second World War, 39
Senate Act, 46
Separate Amenities Act, 44
Separate Development, 3
Separate Representation of Coloured
Voters Act, 43, 46
Separate University Education Bill,
47
Shaka, King of the Zulus, 28, 31
Shilling, Captain, n
Sixth Kaffir War, 25
Slagters Nek, 34, 38
Slavery, 20, 22; emancipation, 25;
Negro and Malayan, 13
Smuts, Field-Marshal J. C., I, 20, 36,
39, 40, 42, 52
Somerset, Lord Charles, 24
Sophiatown, 45
South Africa, 2, 53, 58, 70; English-
speaking South Africans, 28; Euro-
93
INDEX
pean franchise, 67-8; flag of Orange,
38; general political situation, 85-7;
Ghana, 22; political activity of
wMtes, 65, 75; and Protectorates,
30, 44; racial, relationships, 13, 27,
SS-6; revolution or evolution, 58-9;
slavery, 13; and Statute of West
minster, 38, 42; unification, 36;
World Wars, 38, 39
South. African Bureau of Racial Afiairs,
South African Coloured Peoples
Organization, 83
Soutb-West Africa, 41; dispropor
tionate representation, <5i; first
elections, 42
Statute of Westminster, 38, 42
Steenkamp, Anna, 27
Strijdom, J. S., i, 27, 41, 46, 61, 68, 73
86
Suppression of Communism. Act, 42
TABIE BAY 9 II
Tomlinson Commission, The, 47,
78
Torch Commando, 42r-3, 44, 75
Trade Unions, 41
Transvaal, 2 S 15, 26, 30, 33 34, 35 ">
annexation, 33; attitude to rada!
questions 40; British, colony, 35;
Rising, 33 ; self-government restored,
36
UITLANBEES, 23, 34
United Nations, 21, 40-1
United Party, I, 39* 4O 4*. 44. 45*
48-9, 53, 72, 80, 82, 88; and fran-
cMse, 6511; opposition to nationalism,
75; poKcies, 4, 60, 66
VANDEEKEMP, 2-3
Vereeniging, Treaty oC 35
Verwoerd, Dr. F. H., 27, 42, 43, 45> 4
50, 57, 58, S6
Voortrekkers, 26, 27-8, 31; Monu-
ment, 29
N, Dr. Charles, 47
Washington, Booker, 75
Waterboer, Grigua es-CMef, 33
Weenen, 28
Witwatersrand, discovery of gold, 34;
University, 48, 53*1
XOSA, 16, 22, 25
94
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